Beautiful Disaster
by ArtemisEmerald
Summary: A/U NG. Greg, a CSI, and Nick, a detective for the LVPD, meet under some unsettling circumstances. Something happened to Greg. Too bad he can't remember. Update 12/12: The chapter error has been fixed.
1. Prologue

Title: Beautiful Disaster

Author: ArtemisEmerald

Rating: M to be safe

Disclaimer: Not mine. So not mine.

Warnings: Slash which means male/male kissing…or more

Pairings: Nick/Greg, brief mentions of GSR

Summary: A/U NG. 'He was going to die right here, right now surrounded by the cold lake water and there wasn't anything anyone could do about it. All he could do was make enough noise and hope to attract someones attention.'

A/N: I know, I really should be working on the sequel for When All is Said and Done, but I've got a block on that one and this story just sort of…slapped me up side the head. It's an A/U sitting somewhere in the middle of season five. Greg's been a level one for about a year. Nick, on the other hand…

Hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and if anyone is curious, I have the link to Nick's house that's described below. (Sadly, it's not the one in the show and there's a reason for that.)

* * *

"You're safe. I've got you now."

Greg stopped struggling as the owner of the voice grabbed his bound wrists and hoisted him out of the water with ease. It wasn't until after the rope was cut and he had rubbed the water out of his eyes that he got a good look at his savior.

The man had dark brown hair that was sheared and the most beautiful brown eyes that Greg had ever seen. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that showed of a nicely shaped body. Not overly built but definitely one of someone who took care of himself.

"I…thanks." Greg managed, his throat scratchy from the lake water he had swallowed while trying to stay at the surface.

The man gave him a brilliant smile, but it didn't overshadow the concern on his face, "I'm detective Nick Stokes. I've got towels back at my truck. Do you think you can walk?"

"Greg Sanders and...maybe?" Greg tucked his legs under his body and pushed himself up onto his knees. He was a bit wobbly, probably from adrenalin than anything else, but Nick's hand was steady at his elbow and he managed to get to his feet with little problem.

The walk to Nick's truck was a short one, around the small cove and down about fifty yards. As short as it had been, Greg's legs were shaking from excursion by the time they reached the black F-150. Nick sat Greg on the tailgate before going around to get a towel from the cab.

Greg looked down at his wrists, where they were rubbed raw from the rope. Whoever had done this to him was good. He had managed to get a good look at the bindings before Nick had cut them off. Now, all he kept thinking was that it was a damn good thing he had woken up on the way out here. He'd hate to think of what would have happened to him if he hadn't. He shivered at the thought and wondered just how long it would be before he'd be able to take a board back out onto the waters back home, whether it would even be worth the trauma to do so.

"Here you go." Nick dropped one towel over his head and another onto his lap. Greg started to scrub at his hair before he remembered all the gel he used. The water would have hydrated it, making it runny and sticky. He didn't want to ruin Nick's towels, so he set the one towel on top of the other and pulled off his t-shirt, planning on using that on his hair first.

Before he got any further than pulling it off, he heard Nick gasp in what had to have been shock. Confused, he lowered the shirt and looked at Nick. Nick, however, was too busy staring at his torso to notice the questioning glance he was getting.

"What?" Greg asked, before looking down at himself. He, too, drew in a breath of surprise. His entire torso was covered in bruises. Some were yellow and fading, others were blue and purple showing that they were new. His entire chest was covered in them and one under his arm looked distinctly like a boot print.

Nick reached out and ran a finger along the boot mark before hissing in sympathetic pain, "What the hell happened to you?"

Greg looked up at Nick, suddenly scared out of his mind, "I have no idea."

Ten minutes later, which was how long it took Nick to hunt down his phone, Nick snapped his cell shut and gently pulled Greg off of the tailgate, "Brass is meeting us at the hospital."

Greg grimaced at the thought, "I don't need to go to the hospital."

Nick leveled a mild glare at him, "For all you know, you have a couple of cracked ribs. Don't think I didn't see you wincing while I was on the phone. Besides, I don't have a choice. Brass pretty much demanded it." Nick helped Greg into the cab before heading around to the driver's side.

After they were on the road for a few minutes, heading towards County General, the nearest hospital in the area, when Nick spoke up again, "How do you know Brass?"

"He's the detective liaison between the CSI's and the police department." Greg responded. His answer was slightly slurred as pain began to blossom all over his body. He wondered what the hell happened to warrant such abuse. He knew for a fact it wasn't a one night stand gone bad or a jilted lover and he was pretty sure the case he was working on most recently was a teenager breaking into a store. Of course, given his spotty memory at the moment, he just wasn't certain.

"Let me guess. You're a CSI." Nick said, his voice almost a growl.

Greg glanced at him, worried, "Yeah, have been for a year or so now. I used to be a lab-rat."

"You're still a rookie?" Nick was starting to sound pretty angry. Greg could actually hear a southern drawl that was starting to make itself more pronounced. Before it had been barely noticeable, but now it was really coming to the forefront

"Hey, like I said, I've been a level one for about a year now. Besides," Greg rested his head gently against the headrest, barely holding back a cry of pain as a bump in the road jolted him out of position, causing his ribs to flare up in pain, "I'm not too sure this is 'cause of a case or not." He managed to get out.

Nick glanced at him, "Greg, Brass said you've been missing for a week."

TBC...

Maybe?


	2. Chapter One

Okay, I was going to wait until I finished chapter six to post this, but….there's a pretty good chance I'm moving halfway across country tomorrow (I've been waiting a month so all I can say is it's about time.) So, because of this happy little news, we are getting two chapters today. Well….one now and one later tonight. Mostly cause I don't know when I'll get a chance to post again after tomorrow…

Also….**not beta'd**. All mistakes are mine and mine alone. There's probably a few that I missed. I'm sorry.

* * *

"Greg, what happened?"

Greg looked over at his boss, "Honestly Gris, I don't know. It can't be related to the case I was last working on. The suspect was a twerp. There's no way he could have done it."

Grissom frowned and glanced at Brass then over at Nick, who hadn't left Greg's side since they had arrived at the hospital. Grissom knew Nick Stokes, had in fact tried to get him to join his team as a CSI but the man didn't want to work third shift and so Grissom had helped him get into the police department instead. He also knew Brass was planning on training Nick to take his spot, as the older man was up for a promotion in the coming months. Grissom could see that Nick knew what was coming and was gearing up for an argument. The entomologist felt a surge of approval towards the Texan.

He turned back to Greg and frowned as his youngest team members words finally stuck, "What case are you talking about?"

"The B and E at Drove's Liquor, why?" Greg said slowly, as if speaking to a group of five year olds.

"Greg," Grissom said in the same tone of voice, "The casing you working on when you went missing was a suspected hit and run outside of Henderson. Near Foothills Montessori."

Greg's mouth dropped open to straighten out his boss before it slowly closed again as he took in the faces of his boss and the police detective standing next to him, "Are you sure?"

"You were working the case with Jeremy. He's missing as well." Grissom said, rubbing his forehead.

Greg felt a shiver of fear skitter up his spine at the name of the other CSI. Was there a chance he was connected to this in some way? The fear must have shown on his face, because all three men instantly boomed out, "What?"

"I…I think this has something to do with Jeremy."

Before anyone could respond to that, the doctor walked in with a clipboard in hand, "All right then, Mr. Sanders. No internal bleeding, light concussion, minor cuts, rope burns, two cracked ribs and a wrenched knee. We would like to keep you here for observation for a couple of hours minimum and then we'll see about letting you go. The nurse will be in to wrap the knee and ribs. She'll also have the prescriptions for pain relievers and a medicated cream for the bruises. Do you have any questions?"

Greg shook his head, his head twirling a bit at the rapid speed the doctor was rambling at, "I'm good."

"Okay then. The nurse will be in shortly." He paused at the door, "I do apologize for the rapid in and out like this, but we've got an accident coming in." With that he was gone.

"Why do you think it was Kastner?" Brass asked, stepping closer towards the bed as the nurse bustled in with a tray in her hands.

Greg shivered as the nurse dropped the top of the gown off of his shoulders to get to his ribs, "I don't know. A feeling, I guess."

"A feeling…" Brass snorted.

Grissom frowned at his friend. The man had always preferred hard facts over gut instincts, "Greg, even if Jeremy had nothing to do with it, you can't go home right now."

"Why not?"

"Because, G, if someone did try to kill you they're going to be watching your place for awhile to cover for eventualities. If you go home at all in the next few weeks, you're pretty much a dead man." Nick replied.

Greg paused in trying to keep the gown covering his privates as the nurse began work on his knee. He wasn't exactly naked underneath, but it had been a few days and his underwear weren't in the best of conditions. He smiled a bit at the nickname before it dropped into a scowl, "I do _not_ want to be put into a safe house. You can't, Gris!"

Grissom met Nick's eyes over the top of Greg's head and raised his eyebrows. Nick glanced at Brass before turning to look down at Greg, "You're not. You're coming home with me. I have a pretty decent guest room."

"Oh. That's…okay, then."

* * *

Nick helped Greg into the truck before climbing in himself, "You up to walking around a bit?"

Greg looked over at Nick and smirked, "Well, no not right now. I'm in a car."

"Smart ass. I meant we really should get you some clothes and toiletries, maybe some books or something. I also need to get in some groceries." Nick paused, "Do you cook?"

"I can, yeah. Why? Payment for taking me in?" Greg asked, a grin crossing his face at the ideas of some other forms of payment he'd like to give the man.

"No! Of course not! I meant that since you'll, you know, be eating with us is that you can help out if you want. I do a lot of the cooking from boxes or whatever and I swear we have pizza more than we should. I can pick up whatever you want to get."

Greg's heart sank at the 'us' and 'we' that Nick threw out. It was pretty bad that he had a crush on the southern man already and now he had to see him being all cutesy with a significant other. Sometimes his life really sucked, "Yeah, that's fine. Do you have a crock pot?"

Nick glanced at him, "A what?"

"You kidding?"

Nick shook his head, "Nope. The name doesn't sound like anything I have. How about you point one out in the store and I can give you a definite answer then."

"Yeah I can do that."

They stopped at a super Wal-Mart that was almost literally right down the road from Nick's house. Greg decided to stay in the truck, something Nick wasn't going to argue about as it was obvious the pain meds were still floating around his body and he was feeling about ready to drop back off.

He was a bit bummed about the crock pot thing, but it didn't matter much. He was good at cooking other things. He gave Nick his sizes for clothes and then dropped his head back.

Greg could not believe how quickly he was falling for Nick. A saving hand, a few nice words and he was gone. He wasn't sure if that made him pathetic or not. Maybe it was just the pain meds talking and he'd feel damn foolish about this later.

It didn't take Nick very long, twenty minutes at the most and after he filled up the backseat they were on their way. He lived in a very nice neighborhood, Greg had to admit. None of the houses were the new cookie cutter style that were going up in suburbs all over the country, nor were any of them the Mediterranean style that houses along the west coast boasted. In fact, Nick's house almost had a Florida feeling to it. Like one were to step off the porch onto a white sandy beach, not grass and rocks in the middle of the desert.

The house was long and narrow with an attachment that could be called a garage if Nick drove a slightly smaller vehicle. The porch, as well as the second story deck, had fans attached to the roof coverings. Nick's landscaping was no nonsense, it seemed. A plain grass yard met the brick driveway and there were only two palm trees, one at each corner of the yard. The front yard was wider than it was long, ending on both sides by metal decorative fences.

"This is a nice place."

Nick smiled at him, "Thanks. It was a lucky find, actually. Let's get you inside and situated at least in the living room so I can start hauling everything inside."

"K." Greg slid out of the truck and waited for Nick to lead him up to the front door. Once inside, Greg's jaw dropped, "Wow. That's a lot of books."

Nick shrugged, "I like to read. Most of them belonged to my granddad before I got them. Come on, family rooms more comfortable."

Greg followed him down the hallway, nodding when Nick pointed out a small bathroom on one side of the hall and a set of stairs opposite that led outside as well. Just before the kitchen was the stairway to the second floor.

The kitchen went the width of the house and just beyond was the dining room/family room. There was a long table in the dining room that only took up about a third of the space. The other two thirds housed a long, dark brown suede couch that looked perfect for napping. There were two chairs along the back wall and all were centered around a square coffee table facing the biggest TV armoire Greg had ever seen.

As Greg settled down onto the couch Nick asked, "Your meds on you or out in the truck?"

Greg yawned, "Truck I think."

"All right. I'll bring those in with the first load. After I get everything put away, we're gunna get you cleaned up."

"We?" Greg asked, canting his head a bit to see Nick.

"You have a couple of cracked ribs. I'd pay big bucks to see you try to raise your hands over your head without it hurting."

Greg nodded, "We then."

* * *

Greg awoke to someone patting lightly at his chest and whispering softly to him. He took a few ragged breaths to try and ease the adrenalin fueled terror still encompassing his body. He knew it was a nightmare, all the other times he had woken it was to stone floors and dripping pipes not to soft sheets and kind words. He paused at the thought and took a deep gulp of air. He was remembering. Too bad it wasn't anywhere near enough.

He looked down when the hand stopped patting his chest, only to lock eyes with a pretty little girl who was no more than four. She was curled up on his good side and holding a ratty teddy bear between them, "Hi." He whispered, his voice cracking slightly. Had he been screaming? If he had, then why hadn't Nick come running?

"'Lo." She whispered back, as if they were playing a game.

Greg eyed her for a moment. There was no doubt in his mind that this was Nick's daughter. She had the same dark locks and same shaped eyes. The only difference he could really see was that while Nick had deep, intense chocolate brown eyes his daughters were a startling blue hidden away behind little children glasses.

"Yous was havin' a nightmare." She whispered, "Teddy said we should help. Did we?"

Greg smiled; she was really cute, "Yep. Is it very late?"

She shook her head, "No. Daddy hasn't made dinner yet." She bit her lip before sitting up and holding out her hand, "I Maddy."

"I'm Greg. Did your daddy tell you about me?"

Maddy nodded, "Yup, said I have to be quiet 'cause yous was 'cuparatin. I go tell daddy yous awake." She made to scramble off the bed and almost took a tumble instead. Greg managed to catch her with a hiss, his muscles protesting the rapid movement.

Maddy's eyes grew impossibly round behind her little glasses and her hands flew up to cover her mouth, "I sorry!"

"It's ok, really. I'd rather be a little uncomfortable than have you sprawled on the ground. Nick doesn't need two of us hurt." Greg said, pulling Maddy gently to his side.

"Got that right."

Maddy's head whipped around and she pulled away from Greg, "Daddy!" She wailed, bursting into tears, "I hurt Greg."

Greg met Nick's eyes, startled. Granted, he had never been around kids that much, but he could have sworn she was no where near tears a second ago. Nick gave him a 'what can you do?' shrug before coming fully into the room and setting a tray down on the dresser. He pulled his daughter up into his arms and then sat down on the edge of the bed, "Roo, Greg's muscles are tight from sleeping. He didn't catch you on his bad side. It's okay."

"Your dad's right Maddy. I just moved too fast." Greg said.

Maddy sniffed, "You sure?"

"'Course I'm sure." Greg reached out and ruffled her hair, "Now I smell food and my stomachs starting to rumble but first…" He paused and then grimaced, "I really have to go to the bathroom."

"Maddy, go wash up. I'll help Greg to the bathroom and then get him eating then it'll be our turn, okay?"

Maddy looked up at Nick then over at Greg before her lower lip began to tremble, "Can't I eat up here with Greg?"

Nick shook his head and slid his daughter off his lap, "You know the rules."

"Aww." Maddy stomped her way out the door and down the hallway. Both men cocked their heads as they listened to the pounding of little feet going down the stairs.

"She's cute." Greg said as he inched his way to the edge of the bed.

Nick gave him a blinding grin, "Thanks! She can be a little terror, though, as you just witnessed." He stood up and slid an arm around Greg's back, hoping that the extra support would keep most of Greg's weight off of the wrenched knee.

They hobbled down to the bathroom and Nick leaned against the sinks while Greg did his business in the water closet, "So Mister Sanders, you mentioned this morning that you used to be a lab-rat? What does that mean?"

Greg flushed the toilet and limped his way out of the closet and to the sink, "I worked DNA. There was…an accident a few years ago in the lab. After that, I did everything I could to get out, even taking a pay cut to do so."

Nick narrowed his eyes slightly, "What kind of accident?"

Greg looked at him, "You didn't see my back?"

"I was more worried about your chest and those ribs, to be honest." Nick said, shaking his head.

Greg stared at him for a moment before turned and lifting the back of his shirt up, "There was an accident, something put into a machine that was turned on when it shouldn't have been. It exploded right next to me and I was flung through the glass wall of the lab."

Nick reached out and traced the spider web of scars running along Greg's back, "How can you talk about it so easily?"

"Grissom made me go to therapy. A month afterwards, when I was back at work, he caught my hands shaking when I was going over a report with him. It wasn't interfering with my work, but it worried him." Greg dropped the shirt down and turned to face Nick again, "It took almost a year until I was comfortable in short sleeves, let alone going shirtless around people. Speaking of shirtless, you said something about a shower earlier before I apparently passed out?"

"After we eat. You can use mine. It's a stand alone so it'll be easier to get in and out of. If you want I can…" Nick was interrupted as Maddy yelled for him, "Hold your horses, Madeline!"

Greg snickered, "You sounded like my mom."

"I think that's a universal parent thing." Nick said with a laugh, "Come on, let's get you back in bed."

Dinner for Greg was simple; soup, applesauce and some tea that had him wrinkling his nose a bit until he tried some. Afterwards, Nick led him into his room to use the shower. The master bath was fairly large and the free standing shower was big enough for two grown men to move freely in it. That was a good thing as Nick had been right. He couldn't lift his arms very high at all.

Greg supposed he should have been shy, standing under the water naked with a guy who was practically a stranger, but there was something about Nick that made him comfortable. He also kept thanking the pain killers that were basically killing any erection his body wanted to produce. Having someone half bathe him was a particularly arousing experience.

Greg spent some time reading to Maddy, bemused that little girl seemed so enamored with him. His experience with children was limited and those he did run across seemed to find him weird. He could only think of one exception to that and that was Catherine's daughter Lindsey, before she hit her wild streak.

At nine, Nick came back in to usher Maddy to bed. He paused by the bed and cocked his head, "You look better without the spikes."

Greg's eyebrows shot up, "I like my spikes." Sort of. He was actually ready for a change, having had the same hairstyle for the past few years. Maybe now was a good time for that. The only question was could he actually go natural with his hair?

"Just saying." Nick shrugged and swung a sleepy Maddy up into his arms, "The curls are cute. Take your pills. I'll wake you in the morning before Maddy and I take off."

Greg nodded, "Okay. And Nick?"

Nick paused at the threshold and glanced back over his shoulder, "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"No problem. Night."

* * *

TBC….

Oh, and for anyone who didn't get a response (I know there were a few but my email hates me) Thank you for leaving a review! So cool!

Also...did I forget to mention this was a kidfic? But heck, if you've read my stuff before, you should have expected it...in some form or another...


	3. Chapter Two

Please don't shoot me….please….

* * *

chapter 2

* * *

"Sanders is still alive."

Jeremy Kastner looked up from the computer monitor he had been staring at for the past few hours, a frown etched firmly on his face, "That's impossible Torres. He was drugged and tied up. He never would have made it to shore. The water at the cove is over ten feet deep."

Torres slammed his hand down onto the desk, his own tanned face full of anger, "I don't give a damn if it's impossible or not. I sent men to retrieve the body. It was gone."

"Look, just because the body was gone, doesn't mean he's alive. For all you know, somebody called the damn cops!" Kastner turned back to the monitor, ignoring Torres. He knew he had done his job. He had never liked Sanders as it was and had been glad to be the one that De Luca had picked to snuff out the man.

"Well, you better find out." Torres said, grabbing a fistful of Kastner's hair and pushing his own face within inches of Kastner's, "De Luca wants you back at work. We need an inside man."

Kastner pulled his head free of the tight grip and kicked the Costa Rican man away from him, "Is that so? Looks like I need to have a talk with the boss man. I don't take your word for anything." He stood up and brushed past Torres, "You have any idea how lucky you are that De Luca didn't just nail your ass? Dropping drugs like that a block from a fucking school."

"Don't tell me how to do my job Kastner." Torres growled before turning and walking away.

Kastner snorted and started for the elevator. He hit the button for the penthouse office and leaned back against the wall. He hoped that Torres was just bullshitting, that De Luca wasn't planning on planting him back in CSI. It had been damned tough worming his way onto the cases that dealt with the drugs and murders that he had previously been informed of from an inside man.

Of course, he had to admire De Luca's way of thinking. CSI dealt with the crimes and evidence so instead of putting him in the police department, where he would have had to work his way to vice or even the violent crimes division, which would have taken time, he was placed in a position that had him dealing with it all right away after hiring.

It helped that Kastner had a head start by taking science courses in college along with criminal justice. The second was more to please a cop of a father than for any real interest in fighting crime. When De Luca came up with the idea to infiltrate the police department, they knew they had an in when a CSI was killed at one of their drops. Kastner took her place two weeks later.

When he reached the pent house office, he waved his hand at De Luca's secretary and walked right into the office, a privilege few had, "So you're sending me back in then?"

"You talked to Torres. That man has a mouth like a faucet." De Luca dropped his feet from his desk and reached for a small cigar box that was resting next to his keyboard. He pulled one out for himself before offering one to Kastner. When he was declined, he set the box back down and pulled out a fancy, gold platted cutter, "Jeremy, I have to be honest. Things just aren't looking good right now. Sales are down because of Torres' little fuck up. Word travels fast in this world.

"We need to get you back inside, back to steering things away from us." De Luca paused to light his cigar. He stood up and walked over to the window. Kastner had to hold back a snort. His boss was smart, he'd give him that, but sometimes it seemed like everything De Luca did was straight out of a movie.

"It'll give buyers confidence if we have a run of good luck." De Luca turned and motioned at Kastner with the hand holding the cigar. Kastner automatically followed the hand, his eyes catching sight of the missing tip of his boss' middle finger.

He shook his head slightly and met De Luca's eyes again, ignoring the tight smirk on the man's face. Catching sight of the missing finger wasn't a slip. It was a warning.

* * *

Warrick swept his eyes over the charred house, wondering if it would even hold his weight or if it would crumble to dust with one foot in the doorway.

"Do you want me to go first, Warrick?" Sara asked, coming up to his shoulder.

Warrick glanced at her before turning his attention back to the house, "It looks like it could go at any time."

Sara placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed, "All the better to get in, get what we need, and get out yeah?" She picked up her case and started up the walk.

Warrick let out a resigned sigh and followed her inside. He pushed through the debris scattered in the door and coughed as dust flew up towards his face. He waved his hand through the air, trying to clear some of the ash from the area in front of his mouth and nose, "Should have grabbed masks." He muttered, mentally cursing their stupidity over something so small. It was a good thing Grissom wasn't present.

A glance to his right showed Sara in the living room, going over the fireplace with a scrutinizing stare. Figuring she could handle that on her own, he made his way back to the kitchen, only to stop dead in the doorway, "Sara?"

The brunette CSI stepped into the hallway, "What's up?"

"You gotta see this." He jerked his head at the kitchen and stepped off to the side as she walked up to him.

"It's…it's spotless. How is that possible?" Sara's eyes were wide as she stepped inside the room, "There's some smoke damage but not a lot." She turned and looked around the molding of the doorway. Leaning in, she pressed a gloved finger to a slightly damaged area and then frowned when her finger stuck, "Tape residue."

Warrick frowned and turned back to the front door. He tilted his head a bit as he walked to the doorway, noticing something running along the frame. He reached out and grabbed a frayed edge of whatever it was. Pulling it away from the molding, he gave it a closer look, "Fibers." He looked over at Sara, "Was someone trying to keep something in…or something out?"

They both looked at the stairway at the same time and then back at each other, "Looks like we go up." Warrick said. He pulled a bag out of his pocket and dropped the fibers inside, marking the bag after he closed it up. After setting the bag in his case, he pulled out his flashlight while Sara got her camera ready.

They started up the staircase to the second level, both keeping an eye out for anything unusual on the climb up. When Warrick reached the landing, he turned towards the bedroom on the left, only to pause when he heard a weird sound, "You hear that?"

"Yeah." Sara pointed to the bedrooms opposite, "Came from one of those rooms."

Both CSI's pulled their guns, not wanting to take any chances. It might have been a victim but if that had been the case, wouldn't have one of the firefighters or detectives found them? Sara pressed her hand to the handle before pulling it back, "Look, the seal along the door hasn't been broken. The firefighters didn't look in here. That's not right."

Warrick frowned at that and then checked the other door, "This one's been opened." He walked back over, "Get a picture of that."

Sara took a couple of different areas along the frame before dropping the camera back to her chest. She then shifted her gun and reached out for the handle again. Warrick pressed himself to the small stretch of wall between the two rooms and nodded at her.

She grabbed the handle and pressed down. She stared at the door a moment then did it again, "It's locked."

"That would explain why the firefighters didn't check the room."

"Why didn't they just kick it in?" Sara asked, moving out of the way. Warrick was taller and stronger. She was enough of a woman that she knew when a man needed to do a job.

"I don't know. It is possible that they came in through this room, realized the door was locked and couldn't kick it out? Look at the way the frame is on the door."

Sara nodded. It made some sense. If the firemen were going to come in this way to try and rescue anyone, they weren't going to bog themselves down with a battering ram. And with the frame positioned the way it was, it would have taken a battering ram to open it.

Warrick lifted his foot and kicked at the door. It didn't budge. He scowled and kicked again. Still no give. Growling in annoyance, he grabbed the handle and rested his shoulder against the door. After taking a deep breath, he began throwing all his weight into the door. It took him four times before the lock and seal gave way and the door swung open.

Warrick was still hanging onto the handle and fell inwards with the door. His eyes scanned the room and then fell on the bed, "Well shit."

* * *

Grissom stared through the glass window of the hospital room. It was a conundrum, even for him. Jeremy had no concussion, no outward contusions other than bruising similar to that of Greg's and only mild smoke inhalation. He had been tied up as well but it hadn't looked as if he had struggled much.

The only thing Grissom could figure was that Jeremy had been placed in the room after the fire had been put out, but even that was confusing. The door had been sealed and locked and there were pictures to prove that it hadn't been budged. The glass in the windows had been in place and locked as well.

To add even more to the confusion, the house had given way barely an hour after they had extracted Jeremy from the room. All that had been left standing was the kitchen and part of the staircase, both of which had been buried under the second story and roof of the house. There was no way they could look further.

"Is he awake yet?"

Grissom shook his head, "Brass sent you instead?"

Nick nodded and leaned against the wall, "He had another case. A death at the Bellagio. He would have sent me to that one, but apparently the owner of the casino was requesting him personally. My exes name precedes me it seems."

Grissom chuckled, "They're going to have to get over it eventually."

"Yeah. So? Wanna tell me?"

"There's something weird about this, Nicky. I wish I knew what it was." Grissom frowned and stepped away from the door, "I'm not sure I want to tell him about Greg."

"I agree with you there. Granted a feeling is nothing, Greg could have been subconsciously remembering something happening to Kastner for all we know, but without the pieces adding up…"

"Yeah, those are my thoughts exactly. I want to keep an eye on him too, when he goes back to work, but if he gets the slightest bit suspicious he can go to Ecklie."

Nick winced. Ecklie was a nuisance to even the police department, feeling that CSI investigations rated over their own at most times, "That wouldn't be a good thing. So what do we do?"

Grissom ran a hand over his face, "I wish I knew, Nicky. I really wish I knew."

"Yeah." Nick replied softly, taking up sentry at the window. There was something going on that was way above anything they could think of and their only lead was still unconscious.

TBC….

What a place to leave off when I don't know when I'll be back on here, eh? I'm sorry….


	4. Chapter Three

A/N: This chapter has some swearing in it. Not much but more than I normally use. Oh, and in case some of you are wondering, and I already got questioned on this, you will see more on the house investigation...eventually. Flowiness is the name of the game here.

Thanks to Gabi for beta'ing this. I can never find all of my own mistakes…any left are my fault. Onward ho!

* * *

Greg tossed the book onto the couch next to him with a disgusted sigh. He was bored out of his freaking mind. Three days of doing absolutely nothing was more than he could handle. He contemplated turning on the TV but to be honest there wasn't anything on at this time of day that he wanted to watch.

He leaned his head back against the couch and contemplated the detective that had taken him in. Nick Stokes, thirty five years old and a divorcee. Devoted father of one and the youngest son of a judge and lawyer, having five older sisters and an older brother, the thought of which had him glad he was an only child. That many kids had to make for busy holidays.

Greg thought back on his interactions with the Texan over the past few days. He had been all but bed ridden the first full day of staying with small Stokes family, his knee and ribs acting up from all the moving he had down the day prior. After Nick had put Maddy down for the night, Nick had come back into his room and they had spent hours just talking. The way Nick had acted at first caused Greg to wonder if Nick was just glad for another adult to talk to outside of work.

That theory was shot to hell the next day when Nick hosted Maddy's daily play group. The older man had many friends in the parents that had arrived, particularly a same sex couple with two young children. When they talked that night, this time down in the family room with the TV on mute and only inches between them, Greg discovered that one of the men was actually an ex of Nick's. Nick had been the one to introduce the man to his current partner, a fellow detective in the department.

And then there was yesterday. Other than meeting Maddy for the first time, yesterday was standing out as the best day so far with Nick. Greg, his knee no longer swollen and painful, was finally coming back into his own effervescent self and it had been glaringly obvious the day before.

While Nick had Maddy at the park, Greg decided to put some music on and start dinner for them. He had balked at most of Nick's music selection, painfully wishing for his own selection of CDs and LPs, but there were a few jewels among them. He spent the first half hour of cooking, singing, dancing and wincing when certain moves jarred his ribs, but when Nick and Maddy finally made it home he had found his groove.

Nick had intercepted him on the way to the fridge, much to Maddy's squealing enjoyment. Nick had pulled him into his arms and twirled him around gently before pulling him back into his sturdy body. That particular move had the end result of their faces being only inches apart. Greg had met Nick's eyes and could feel the other mans breathing speeding up slightly. Greg had been about two seconds away from kissing the Texan when he smelled something burning. They wound up ordering Chinese and avoiding eye contact the rest of the night.

Suddenly feeling a bit melancholy, he climbed to his feet and grabbed a water from the fridge before heading out onto the back porch. Greg loved it out here, having spent quite a bit of the past few days standing under the fans that pushed air conditioned breezes down around him. The view was indescribable, given the plainness of the front yard.

Flower beds lined the bamboo fences that edged the yard, the rocks of the beds gleaming under the Nevada sun. Other than a trampoline in the far corner of the yard, situated near the standalone garage Nick had erected just after moving in, there weren't any other toys strewn across the yard.

"She has a playroom in the basement that she uses during the summer since it's so hot." Nick said, coming to stand next to him.

Greg glanced at him, "I didn't even hear you pull up and how did you know what I was thinking?"

Nick shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets, "The look on your face. You were searching, something you didn't do the last few times you were out here."

Greg rested his forearms around the railing and arched his back slightly, enjoying the cool air that brushed across his neck, "Didn't realize I was so predictable."

"You're anything but predictable." Nick chuckled before suddenly growing serious. He reached out and rested a hand on Greg's back, "I have something to tell you."

Greg turned his head so he could see Nick clearly without straining his eyes, "That…doesn't sound good."

Nick shook his head and motioned for Greg to follow him back inside the house. Greg furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but walked after him. He sat down on the couch and waited for Nick to join him. He actually started picking at the label on the bottle before he realized he was fidgeting.

Nick sat next to him and his hands fluttered as if wanting to touch Greg again before they settled back on his lap. He took a deep breath, "They found Jeremy Kastner."

Greg's head shot up and he stared at Nick without really seeing him. He was instantly lost in his own mind, half blurred memories swirling around vying for dominance without being clear.

_A hand with a missing finger holding a knife to his throat. A steel toed boot connecting with his chest even as he tried to curl up on himself. The smell of something burning, close to plastic, swirling around his cell making him cough. A man of Spanish decent grinning down at him, the corners of his mouth flipping to turn the grin into a devilish smirk. Someone calling his name, laughter ringing with it. A teenager in the cell across the hall, gone missing after only a few days never to be seen again…_

Greg gasped as mouth pressed to his, a hand clasping his shoulder tight enough to hurt. He almost responded to the kiss, but pulled away instead, feeling lost, "….Nick?"

"Sorry, sorry." Nick said softly, resting his forehead on the side of Greg's neck, "I just couldn't get your attention any other way and I really didn't want to slap you."

"No, that probably wouldn't have been smart." Greg tilted his head sideways, resting it on top of Nicks. It was a comfortable position, both physically and mentally. At the moment, Greg could swear he had never felt safer.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Nick asked, his voice muffled by his position.

Greg really didn't want to, not at all, but he knew he had to, "It wasn't much. A lot of it was still blurry. I remember a couple of men, one of them was Spanish. The other, I didn't see his face but he _was_ missing part of a finger. There was also a teenager who was being held across from me. He was gone after a couple of days though. Oh, I also remember choking on smoke from something. Burning plastic maybe."

Nick pulled back and framed Greg's face with his hands, "Nothing on Kastner?"

Greg could feel his eyes watering, "No."

Nick's own eyes widened at the sight of tears and he pulled Greg into his arms, "Let it out, Greg."

Greg wasn't a loud crier by any means, but he was a messy one. When he finally managed to pull himself together, the shoulder of Nick's shirt was soaked through and his own nose was running more than he could keep up with sniffling, "Sorry." He croaked, plucking at the wet spot.

He went to wipe his nose on the back of his hand when Nick stopped him, "Here." The Texan pulled the t-shirt off and handed it over, "Might as well use it."

Greg chuckled wetly and wiped his face down before sighing and leaning back against the couch, "I just want this over with. I want to know. This half knowing, half confused crap is for the birds."

* * *

Nick walked into the doctor's office behind the doctor and sat down on the bed next to Greg, "Everything checks out. The ribs are healing nicely, the bruises are pretty much gone, and your knee has healed completely. Do you have any questions?"

Greg shook his head, "Nope, I'm all set."

"Okay, I'm lowering your medication. Take only as needed." The doctor scribbled on his pad before handing the slip of paper over, "Take care and if you have any problems, let me know."

"Thanks doc." Nick stood up, "Lets just run down to the hospital pharmacy. It'll save a bit of time. Then we can go pick up Maddy and take her somewhere for dinner."

Greg shrugged, "Works for me."

They walked out of the room and down to the elevators that would take them to the first floor of the clinic and the hallway leading to the hospital lobby. So caught up in their bantering, neither man noticed the widened gray eyes watching their movements down the hall.

The pharmacy was relatively empty so they were in an out within a decent amount of time. Nick looked outside and groaned, "It's raining. Do you want to just wait here while I run and get the truck?"

Greg was tempted. The rain was coming down in sheets and they were bound to get drenched on the walk over but he also didn't want to stand around in the hospital either. While he didn't mind them much, standing around in the lobby like he had nothing better to do with his time just made him feel creepy, "Nah. I'd get just as wet if I left the covered area over the car port. It's not worth it."

"All right." Nick went to start out the doors but caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Glancing over, he saw a flash of blue and then a familiar face before it ducked down a hallway, "Jesus fuck. Greg we gotta go."

"Why? What's wrong?" Greg asked, picking up the pace. He didn't like the look on Nick's face, a cross between determined and scared out of his mind. What made it worse was that the look was because of him.

"I just saw Kastner." Nick muttered, digging in his pocket for his phone. He speed dialed Grissom, glad the older man had insisted on the precaution, "Grissom, its Nick. I just spotted Kastner in the lobby of the hospital. He saw Greg." Nick reached out with his free hand and grabbed Greg's as they all but ran to his truck, "No, I don't think he's going to do anything but he knows Greg's alive. Isn't there…" Nick groaned, "I know there isn't enough to warrant watching but…Okay. Yeah, I'll send Davies over to check it out once we get moving. He's on patrol in the area and is leaving shift in about twenty. I'll authorize the overtime." He snorted and hung up the phone.

"What was that all about?" Greg asked, coming to a stop by the passenger door while still throwing the occasional glance over his shoulder. So far, other than Nick's initial sighting of him, there was no sign of Kastner anywhere.

Nick unlocked the doors before heading around the front to the driver's seat. Once they were both ensconced in the warmth of the truck, Nick finally answered, "I'm going to send a patrol to check out your apartment. I can almost guarantee that now that Kastner knows you're alive and if he does have something to do with this; your apartment is going to be someone's first stop."

Five minutes later, they were squealing out of the parking lot, headed for the cleaners Davies was parked by waiting for them. A quick handover of Greg's keys and a few warm wished words, Davies was off towards Greg's neighborhood. Both men could feel a well of something deep in their chests and both were privately wishing it was hope, but pretty much knew that it wasn't.

* * *

The call came an hour later while Greg was in the ball pit with Maddy, dodging the plastic missiles she kept lobbing at him. Nick had been trying to beat the high score on a shoot 'em up game when his phone started buzzing, throwing off his aim. Growling, he grabbed at his phone and glanced at the caller I.D. His heart started thundering in his chest when he saw 'Grissom' flash across the screen.

He flipped it open and quickly held it to his ear, speaking before Grissom could, "Give me a moment Gris, I have to get somewhere quieter." Holding his hand over the mouth piece he sprinted to the ball pit, "Greg, Grissom's on the phone. I'm going outside to talk to him."

Greg nodded and turned back to Maddy, who was trying to climb out of the pit to follow her dad, "Maddy, no sweetie. Daddy just went out to answer a call. He'll be back in a minute. It's just way too loud in here."

Maddy turned imploring blue eyes towards him and Greg could feel his heart melt, "You sure?"

"Positive. Wanna climb up to the tunnels and take the slide down?"

"Yeah!"

Nick stepped away from the doorway and over to the outdoor sitting area, somewhat glad that this area was practically deserted at this time of the day, "Okay, Grissom I can hear. What's up?"

_//There was a detonation attached to Greg's door. Davies didn't make it.//_ Grissom was nothing if straight to the point.

Nick closed his eyes and blew out a slow breath of air. He opened his eyes as something occurred to him, "Greg lives in an apartment building. Was anyone else hurt?"

_//No other fatalities. There were injuries and no ones going to be living there for awhile, but there were no other deaths.// _

"That's good." Nick turned towards the doors, "I'll let Greg know tonight after we put Maddy down."

_//Good luck.//_ Grissom paused, _//Nicky, this might give us what we need to keep an eye on Jeremy.//_

"I hope so Gris. I really do for Greg's sake." Nick snapped his phone shut and took another deep breath before heading inside. He couldn't show anything, not yet. Until his daughter was in bed, he had to pretend that there was nothing wrong.

Too bad it didn't work that way. As soon as Maddy was down, Greg cornered him in his room, "All right, Stokes, what the hell is going on?"

Nick's eyes widened, "What are you talking about?"

"Oh like you don't know. You get a phone call from Grissom and then you start acting weird the rest of the night. The only reason Maddy didn't catch on was because I kept her distracted. Now what gives?"

Nick dropped down onto the edge of the bed and dropped his head onto his hands, "Davies didn't make it."

Greg drew in a ragged breath and sat down next to Nick, placing one hand on the Texans back, "What happened?"

"There was a detonation attached to your door. When Davies opened it, there was an explosion. He was the only fatality but there were a lot of injuries."

Greg dropped his head down to rest on Nick's back, next to where his hand had bunched into the t-shirt as Nick explained, "Shit, this is all my fault."

Nick sat up so fast that Greg was flung down onto his back on the bed. Nick loomed over him, his hands bracketing Greg's shoulders, "You listen to me, Greg Sanders. I don't know where you got that crap idea but none of this is your fault. You survived some shitty ordeal, that's all. Everything else is because of whoever's running this thing. You got that?"

Greg nodded before a sly grin crossed his face, "You sure told me cowboy. You have any idea how hot that accent is?"

It was the first blatant show of flirting and it had the desired effect. Nick turned bright red from the tips of his ears to down under his shirt. Greg couldn't help wondering, as Nick started tickling him in retaliation, if the blush went all the way down.

TBC…


	5. Chapter Four

So, I'm sorry…between moving, and job hunting, and working and then moving –again-…well, no time to do much writing. Here's the next chapter and I'm gunna warn you now that I don't know how long it will be till I get the next chapter out. Thanks again to Gabi for beta'ing. Any mistakes left are obviously mine.

Warnings: swearing I think…

* * *

Kastner winced as the snifter crashed into the wall just beside his head. He hadn't ducked, he knew better than that, but if his boss had noticed the wince he didn't comment on it. De Luca was too riled up.

"What went wrong?" De Luca hissed out, his hands resting on the desk.

Kastner was tempted to just shrug, but with a face as red as De Luca's was, he knew it wasn't a good idea, "I have no idea. He should have drowned. Torres had drugged him up before I took him out to the lake. His hands were tied, literally."

"Now is not the time for jokes! Do you have any idea what will happen if he goes to the police? This whole empire could crumble because you didn't stick around to see if he was dead or not! If I did not need you so badly, I would gladly hand you over to Torres!" De Luca straightened up and rubbed his hand along his chin, "Sanders' apartment is gone. Normally I wouldn't care, but given the fact that it happened _after_…"

"The question is, why hasn't Sanders gone to the police? He's obviously been alive for the past week. If he told somebody, there's no way I would have been let back in to the lab." Kastner mused, eyes becoming unfocused as he began to think.

There were plenty of reasons a normal person wouldn't go to the police, but Sanders was a CSI and as much as Kastner hated to admit it, he was a strong one as well. He would be held by some sort of honor or moral to bring what happened to the police. But why hadn't he?

"What kind of drug did Torres give him?"

Kastner shook his head and focused on his boss, "I know a sedative for sure but other than that? You'll have to ask him. Why?"

De Luca frowned, his own thoughts focused inwards, "Did you hit his head at all?"

"Not on purpose. He fell out of the truck when I got to the cove. Maybe I should have given him a head wound." Kastner muttered, cursing hindsight and the trouble it caused.

"Stop with the patronizing. What's done is done. Now we have to fix it. What are the chances that he just doesn't remember?" De Luca asked, walking over to the wet bar along the far wall. He pulled out another snifter and reached for the bottle of brandy.

"He obviously realized something was off concerning me. The fact that he hightailed it from the hospital was a pretty good indication." Kastner frowned, "Of course, he could be not sure. That would explain the lack of being watched. Now, though, with the charge going off…"

De Luca nodded and took a sip of brandy, "You will have to be careful not to arouse suspicions. Find out who Sanders was with. Maybe we can use something on him to flush Sanders out."

"Oh that's an easy one boss." Kastner said with a smirk, "He was with Detective Nick Stokes."

"Hmm…I wonder if the little punk is under protection. It would make sense." De Luca brushed at a bit of invisible lint as he walked back to his desk, "Find out what you can on Nick Stokes. I want a detailed report in the morning."

Kastner nodded, "Will do."

* * *

Nick scratched the top of his head with both hands before resting his forehead on his palms. The charge was a dead end. Brass had had patrols watching Greg's apartment and unless whoever placed it was a master at invisibility, there was no way it could have happened in the days since Kastner seeing them. There wasn't a way to pass as a neighbor, as Brass and the watching patrolmen had met all of the residents of the building, so as to know who to let through.

Which begged the question? Why place a charge on someone's door when you thought he was dead? This was going a lot deeper than he wanted it to. If they kept coming up with more variables, the case was going to shift departments.

"So what's the verdict?"

Nick looked up as Brass sat down across from his desk. He shook his head and tossed the report to the CSI liaison, "I don't think it was meant for Greg."

"That makes no sense. Who else would go to Sanders apartment but him? It had to be."

"Brass, think about it. The charge had to have been placed before I found Greg. Why do that if he had been with these people for a week beforehand?" Nick shrugged, "It's just not adding up."

Brass closed the folder and set it on the desk before him, "I'm getting a coffee. Want one?"

"Yeah, sure." Nick pulled the folder back to him and flipped the cover.

"Who has keys to Sanders' apartment?" Nick's desk was the closest to the bullpen coffee pot, well within hearing distance.

Nick dropped his pen and turned to look at Brass, "I have no idea. I would assume his landlord. Maybe his parents…" He narrowed his eyes, "Where are you going with this?"

Brass handed over the Styrofoam cup before taking a sip of his own. He winced and set it down, "Who makes this sludge?"

"Frank's. You gonna answer my question?"

"I wasn't going anywhere with it; just giving you another angle to look at. If that charge wasn't for Sanders then it was for someone who knows him." Brass leaned against the desk, "You gonna call him?"

Nick scrambled for the phone and punched in his land line number. Thankfully, Greg knew the stations number and so knew when he was calling. The first few times he called Greg from work, the other man had let the call go through to his answering machine, annoyingly enough.

//Nick? Is something wrong?//

"Not really. Listen, I have a really weird question for you. Who has keys to your apartment?" Nick asked, grabbing up his pen and a notepad.

//Not too weird, I don't think. Well, there's my parents, grandparents, the landlord…uhm…//

Nick sighed in frustration, "That's it?"

//Uh no. My friends Andrea and Mark have a copy. Oh and Steve Radin.//

"Do Andrea and Mark have last names?" Nick asked, trying not to let the sarcasm bleed into his voice. Who gives their house key to so many people? That was just asking for trouble. Sometimes Greg made him want to shake some sense into the man. Of course, once that was done, he'd probably pull Greg into his arms and never let him go.

//Colton. They're married. You wanna tell me why you need to know?//

"I will if this leads somewhere. See you at home."

//Yeah…okay. Bye Nick.//

Nick hung up the phone before looking up at Brass, "Okay, let's get this going."

Brass looked over Nick's shoulder at the list, "Doubt it's the landlord or his parents and Grandparents. They live out in California."

"How do you know that?"

"Please, Sanders likes to talk. I know more surface stuff about that man than I'd like." Brass said, rolling his eyes.

Nick cleared his throat and looked back at the list, "Okay, that leaves his friends. Radin first or the happy couple?"

* * *

Greg dropped the phone back onto its cradle and groaned. He had messed up somewhere with Nick. He could hear it in the man's tone of voice when he talked to him. Greg had the damnedest feeling it was from the previous night when he had made that stupid flirt.

Granted, he had only done it to take Nick's mind off of his fellow officer's death, but his timing had quite obviously sucked like always. It was just the way it was with him. Nick also had to be extremely confused as to why Greg wasn't showing any remorse about losing his apartment like any normal person would be.

Greg actually thought that Nick was going to bring it up before they had gone to bed, but the Texan seemed to have changed his mind. It wasn't something that Greg would have minded answering as it really wasn't that big of a deal. Most of his 'memories' as he called his more personal items (his emotional valuables that is), were left with his friend Jacqui due to him planning to go out of town. It wasn't that he didn't trust his friends, but there were some things that were just too valuable to him to leave at home when he wasn't there for a long period of time and for some reason, Jacqui was the only one he trusted them with. Even he had no explanation for that.

Other things, such as his wall portraits of his family, well, his were only copies of the originals. His parents had the originals…and that brought up a painful thought.

He knew from talking to Grissom at the hospital the day Nick saved him that his parents had known he was missing. The question now was whether Grissom called them to tell them he was safe.

He couldn't see why he wouldn't. His boss was a rather thorough person when it came to his team. Of course, even if he had, near onto a week had passed since. His mom had probably spent the last few days trying to get a hold of him. Not that she could, what with his landline in smithereens and his cell…somewhere.

What would he tell her anyway? That he had been kidnapped and except for the nightmares and the occasional fuzzy flashbacks he didn't remember a lick of it? That his apartment had exploded but he was lucky enough not to have been in it at the time because his boss is paranoid? His mom would be on the next plane out!

It was bad enough that the nightmares were never remembered and the flashbacks were of little substance. He wasn't acting or feeling particularly traumatized at the moment. Not remembering wasn't a good thing, as it was keeping his life from moving forward, but for the time being it was keeping him sane. His mother would _not_ help on that front. Not with as over protective as she was.

He couldn't put it off though. Scratching his stomach, he picked the cordless phone back up off the cradle and punched in his mom's phone number. It would be a miracle if she picked up. Both of his parents were notorious for not answering the phone if they didn't recognize the number. It was to the point now that Greg didn't even have to listen for the beep. He knew exactly how long it took until he could leave a message.

Sure enough, "Mom, its Greg. You wanna pick up now? I know you're standing…"

//Greg? Oh my baby! I was just about ready to head out there! What took you so long to call me?//

Greg winced, he knew it. "Ah, well it's been a busy few days." He looked down at the book on the table and hoped she wouldn't catch him in the lie.

//Gregory…//

Greg sighed in resignation, "Okay fine. I just found out this morning that the guy I'm staying with has free long distance. It took me a few days to get up the guts to ask. Keep his number, will ya? I don't know how long I'm going to be staying with him."

//Okay, fine. Why are you staying with this Nick Stokes anyway? What's wrong with your apartment?//

Did she have some weird sixth sense? Some way of steering the conversation directly into the direction he was trying to avoid bringing up? Was it a parent thing? Maybe he should ask Nick. He'd know, "I'm under protective custody."

//That makes sense. Listen Greg…//

Greg tuned out his mom as a thought occurred to him, "Oh…shit. Mom, I'll call you back." He hung up and was about to punch in another number when the hand held started ringing in his hand. Recognizing the stations number, he hit answer, "Nick? I was just about to call you."

//What's wrong?//

"I…nothing, but I was talking to mom and I just realized, Jeremy knows who you are. If he saw us together…"

//Yeah, that's exactly why I called, keep that in mind, yeah? I'll run home at lunch, okay?//

"Okay." Greg hung up and tried to refrain from throwing the phone across the room. He growled and slammed it down onto the couch instead. Forget this not remembering keeping him sane. He apparently hadn't been thinking straight when he thought that. This was going to drive him insane.

* * *

Nick stepped into the diner and looked around. Spotting the man he was supposed to be meeting in the corner booth, he wound his way back there, waving in acknowledgment when the waitress called out to him about coffee. He slid into the booth and grinned, "This is a bit out of the way, isn't it Gris?"

Grissom nodded, "Yeah, but CSI isn't involved in Greg's case and that whole thing with how we found Jeremy is bothering me."

Nick nodded and then flashed a brilliant grin at the waitress when she placed the mug in front of him, "Thanks darlin'."

"Not a problem detective. Anything else for ya?" The waitress asked with a smile.

Nick leaned back to look around the waitress, "What pies are out today?"

"Pecan and cherry. May's summer flavors."

"Cherry please. Thanks." Nick watched her walk away before turning back to Grissom, "So I'm guessing you figured out what's bothering you?"

Grissom sighed in frustration, "Not really. I want to look at the house again."

Nick's forehead crinkled in confusion, "The house collapsed, Gris. Besides, hasn't the city started clean up for it yet?"

"No. It's still my crime scene and I haven't given the all clear for it." Grissom shook his head, "I don't know what I expect to find but something has to explain how Jeremy showed up in a closed off room with barely any smoke inhalation and the fire fighters not finding him when they went in."

Nick frowned and barely acknowledged the waitress this time around when she brought him his slice of pie. He took a bite of it and chewed thoughtfully, "An inside man maybe?"

Grissom rose an eyebrow, "It's bad enough that my team may be infiltrated, now the fire department too?"

"It's an idea and one of the only ones I can come up with at the minute." Nick took another bite and swallowed just as quickly, "Greg is getting restless. We need to solve this and quickly."

Grissom frowned at that, "Nick, has Greg been showing any effects from that week?"

Nick pushed his plate away with a sigh, "Other than a few nightmares and one set of flashbacks, I don't think so. Not a lot seems to upset that man. He barely flinched when I told him about his apartment until I mentioned that Davies was killed in it."

"You know about the explosion he was in?"

"Yeah, he told me that first night," Nick said, remembering all the scars crisscrossing Greg's back, "Why?"

"Greg chooses to ignore when something happens to _him_. I don't know much about his past but it always seemed to me that he can easily ignore when something is wrong. In order to get him to go to therapy after the explosion, I had to make it a stipulation upon whether he could continue at work."

Nick stared at Grissom, "You saying he's not telling me anything?"

Grissom's eyebrows shot up, "Have you given any reason for him to tell you anything?"

"I…" Nick shook his head, "He hasn't told me what happens in the nightmares and the flashback happened while I was around. I wonder if he would have said anything if I hadn't been there. Then again, if I hadn't told him Kastner had been found, he probably wouldn't have had the flashback."

"Circular reasoning. It's already happened, so there's no point in dwelling on it. I want him back in therapy before he goes back to work and I also want this cleared up first. Too many things could go wrong if Greg goes back to work while Jeremy is still there."

Nick nodded and pulled out his wallet, "I'm going to sit down and talk to him. I'll bring up that you want him to start therapy. I also want to know why he's not dwelling on losing all of his things."

"Good idea." Grissom glanced around the diner, "There is something else."

Nick raised an eyebrow, "And that is?"

"I want to go look at the house right now. I need to figure out how Jeremy got in there right away, get that cleared up."

"You know, you're the only one who calls him Jeremy."

Grissom shrugged, "It's a habit. I call all of my CSI's by their first names. If I suddenly changed now, all of them would know something was up. I can't get out of the habit just because of suspicions of infiltration."

Nick nodded, "That's a good point. So, when do you want to roll?"

"Now would be good."

"Now it is."

Grissom and Nick crouched under the crime scene tape a few minutes later, before stopping and staring at the house, "Just what is it we're looking for?" Nick asked, poking at a fire damaged piece of wood with the toe of his boot.

"I don't know. Let's start with the kitchen. Sara mentioned that that particular room had very little damage done to it." Grissom said, started around the edge of the property.

"You know," Nick said, following Grissom, "With the pattern of the fire, what are the chances that this was arson?"

Grissom stopped at the backdoor to the house, which led into the only still standing room of the previous two story home. If it wasn't for the fact that the kitchen was free standing from the house, save one shared wall, there wouldn't have been a chance of digging for anything. As it was, the way the house collapsed, he'd be able to get about ten feet into the main area of the disarray before he'd come to the second floor that was now intermixed with the first.

"It would be my first guess that this _is_ arson. Somebody was hiding something, I'm almost sure of it." Grissom said, finally answering Nick's question. He opened the door and stepped into the room. Other than a few gaps along the ceiling of the far wall from where the second story pulled away, there were no other holes.

"This is too weird, Gris. If you hadn't seen the front of the house, you'd think someone had just burnt dinner in here." Nick muttered, following the lead CSI into the kitchen.

Grissom nodded, "Yes. Sara wasn't kidding when she mentioned the lack of damage." He walked further into the room and eyed a bookshelf on the far wall. There was something not quite right about its placements. Bookshelves weren't rare in a kitchen by any means, but there was nothing on it. No books, no knickknacks, not even a plant or two. There was no mess around it, indicating that maybe things got knocked off when the house collapsed.

Grissom took a step towards it, "Nick, come look at this."

Nick walked over and frowned, "It's a bookshelf. So?"

"_Look_. No books, no plants, no _mess._"

Nick swept his eyes over it before nodding, "It doesn't belong here."

"Exactly." Grissom cocked his head before looking down at the floor, "What's this?"

Nick followed his friends stare. Narrowing his eyes, he crouched down to get a closer look, "Scrape marks? Leading from the kitchen door, it looks like."

"This does to look to be a heavy bookshelf." Grissom took a few steps back and looked at the wall around the bookshelf, "Nothing showing around the edges. We need to move this."

Nick looked over his shoulder, "All right."

"Pictures first."

"Yes Gris." Nick started snapping away with the scene camera Grissom had passed him. Once finished, he dropped the camera back to rest against his chest and motioned for Grissom to join him. He grabbed one side of the shelves while Grissom grabbed the other, "One, two…" Gritting his teeth, he started pulling outwards.

They stopped after a few feet, eager to see what was uncovered. Turning back around, Nick started swearing colorfully. Hidden behind the bookshelf was a small doorway that held a set of stairs. Or what once had been a set of stairs. At the moment, the stairs looked like a row of triangles leading to a half crushed door.

"No way." Nick shook his head, "Grissom, this whole thing is one big joke! Who would seriously go through this much trouble?"

"I don't know Nick, but you have a point. Hiding a set of back stairs does seem like a bit of effort with no pay off." Grissom said thoughtfully.

"You think?" Nick started snapping pictures again before crouching down at the door frame, "Did Warrick or Sara say anything about a second set of stairs leading to the second story landing?"

"No, otherwise this wouldn't have been all that much of a surprise. Why?"

Nick pointed down the tunnel, "I wonder what's behind door number two?"

TBC….


	6. Chapter Five

A/N: So, we finally have a new chapter….yay. Sorry about the wait. No excuse really, just lack of muse. Gabi kicked me in the arse and got me writing again, so maybe not so long a wait till the next chapter. Things start to come together here, but the story is still not finished. Thanks again to Gabi for beta'ing…

Oh, I'm looking for some Ryan/Jesse stories from CSI:Miami if anyone knows of any that have been written yet….if not, I may have to do some myself…

Warnings: Swearing

* * *

Sara's mouth dropped open, not fully comprehending just what it was her boss was telling her, "There was a secret staircase?" Her voice was almost pure sarcasm.

"Secret in only that someone hid the staircase by placing bookshelves in front of each doorway." Grissom said with a shake of his head. It was the start of shift for Warrick and Sara, who were on swing now thanks to Ecklie, and so wasn't surprised that they were a little on edge.

"What does that mean?" Warrick asked, flipping through the evidence photos spread out on the layout table.

Nick pointed to the photos lying nearest to Warrick, one from before the house collapsed, "Look at this sequence of photos. There is no closet anywhere in the room, not to mention the odd layout of the furniture and plugs hanging out of the wall. There's a good chance that this wasn't a bedroom but a den or a playroom."

"So, what…someone changed out the furniture, closed off the kitchen and that room so the fire wouldn't spread too much into them, dropped Jeremy in the room after the fire was out and then hid the staircase? That seems like an awful lot of trouble. Especially if we're right and the same people who had taken Jeremy were the same people who had taken Greg. All they did was try and drown him," Sara mumbled, her tone a mix of frustration and sarcasm.

Nick rubbed the back of his neck and wondered again at Grissom's decision to tell the rest of the CSI's about what had happened to Greg. Some of them just didn't seem to be all that concerned about their co-workers near death experience. Oh they had been upset, certainly, but after a few days it had just dropped back to careless conversation. Only Grissom, Catherine and most of the lab-rats were still worried about Greg, especially since they hadn't seen him since before his abduction.

"We don't know if the two are related. There's a chance that they are, given that Jeremy went missing at the same time, but there is no evidence to confirm it. Just circumstance and theory," Grissom muttered, running his fingers along the side of chin in thought, "Nick, you mentioned something about calling Greg's friends. Any luck on that front?"

Nick cocked his head, "No." He frowned at that before adding, "I thought you were going to try to stay out of Greg's case?"

"This is nothing but idle curiosity. I just have a feeling that one of those key holders might be the link we need."

Nick's frown turned thoughtful, "We haven't been able get a hold of the married couple yet. They could be that link I suppose but we have no way of knowing. Let me talk to Greg. Maybe he can shine some light on why we can't catch them." He waved his phone at them and left the layout lab when Grissom nodded.

He pressed the speed dial for his house, "Greg?"

**/Who else? Maddy's sleeping. I thought you were coming here for lunch? We made grilled cheese for you./**

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I would have called to let you know I wasn't going to make it at one but Grissom kept me busy with some stuff from yesterday. Is she okay?"

Nick had gotten a phone call around noon, informing him that his daughter had come down the cold that was going around her daycare as well as the playgroup. It had been spreading from child to child for the last month and had slowed the past week. He had thought that his daughter had missed the boat, but as always it seemed that as soon as he thought it wouldn't happen, it happened. Because Greg couldn't leave his house unless Nick was with him, the daycare provider Nancy Scheef, had run Maddy home. Nick had been really glad Greg was staying with him at the moment.

**/Fine. I gave her the medicine and after she ate her soup, she dropped right off to sleep. So what's up?/**

Nick sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Those keys you gave out. We found Steve with no problem, but the married couple…"

**/I was supposed to be taking a vacation this week. Andrea and Mark were the only ones who would be able to check in continuously on the apartment to water my plants and stuff. It's weird that you can't get in touch with them. Andrea is a stay-at-home mom so she always answers the phone./**

"Stay at home mom? They have kids?"

**/Yeah, two. One of them is in third grade, the other around Maddy's age./** Greg gave a soft chuckle, **/Those kids hate me. Whenever I visit Mark, one of them is always trying to beat me up. The oldest, Tommy, goes to a Montessori school. Pretty smart for his age./ **

Nick suddenly flashed back to the hospital room just after he had found Greg. Greg and Kastner had gone missing from outside a Montessori school, "Greg…"

**/Yeah…/ **Greg's voice was little more than a whisper, **/I just remembered that. That's the same school we were by./** Greg suddenly sucked in a breath, **/Oh god./**

"Greg?" Nick's back suddenly went straight with worry, "What?"

**/Andrea was at the school that day…the day that we were taken." **

"You remembered." It was a statement more than a question, "Anything else?"

**/Uhm, I…No, not really. Just that she was there. Oh…wait. We were pulling a double shift. It was around…noon that we reached the school. I had thought it was weird that there were kids roaming around and that Andrea was there. It was an early out and she was picking up Tommy. I had also thought it was odd that she wasn't waiting up by the school. I had just called out to her when everything went black./**

Nick's head cocked as he thought back, "If it was a hit and run outside of Henderson, why were you at the school?"

**/The runner was a teacher./ **

"From the sound of it, there was something else going on at that school and you got caught in the middle of it."

**/Yeah, it certainly seems that way doesn't it?/ **

"All right. It doesn't help with finding Andrea and Mark, but its more information than we have. I'll try to get out early, before Maddy starts getting too crabby."

**/All right. See you later./ **

Nick hung up the phone with a sigh. He had managed to get Greg to remember some things, but he wasn't sure that he was glad of that or not. All the new memories seemed to do was dig the hole deeper.

* * *

Nick took a sip of his beer and slid further into the couch, "I've been meaning to ask. Why did so many people have a key to your apartment G?"

Greg looked up from the puzzle he was working on with Maddy, "What are you talking about?"

"Five people, other than you, have a key. I can understand the landlord but man, my parents don't even have a key to this place."

Greg shrugged, nudging a piece towards Maddy's wondering hands, "My mom is hugely over protective. She was really pissed when I moved here. I guess that comes from being an only child. The key was the only thing that really shut her up. My papa and nana have this tendency to make surprise visits and always show up while I'm at work. It was just easier to give them a key."

"And your friends?"

"Steve and his girl get into fights practically every night. He circulates between all his friends on where he crashes when he gets kicked out. I just got sick of him waking me up at whatever time he showed up. Andrea and Mark were more recent. I told you why on the phone earlier."

Nick nodded but something was bothering him. Greg was acting pretty indifferent about his apartment blowing up. Most people he had dealt with in similar situations were usually way more distressed. In fact, Greg had been more upset about Davies getting caught in the crossfire than he was about losing anything.

He watched the younger man with hooded eyes. Greg was, without a doubt, attractive and had an 'outside the box' personality. Sadly, that was his type if past patterns held true. Maddy's mom had been the pinnacle of that and the few partners he'd had in the past, both male and female, had been more on the original side as well.

Greg fell right in the middle of his dating 'line', being out there without going too far. At the moment it seemed toned down, simmering beneath the surface. Nick hadn't seen his hair spiked since that first day, but that was probably because he didn't keep gels or the like in the house. He really didn't need them and Maddy was too young.

He had mentioned to Greg that he preferred him without the spikes, the curls giving him a somewhat more innocent illusion. He had no doubt it was an illusion but the outward appearance just made what was below the surface more surprising and to Nick, all that more attractive.

Nick's favorite things about Greg's appearance, other than those bright brown eyes, were the moles that peppered his face. He supposed to some, that would be an odd thing to be attracted to, but they just seemed to add to all that was Greg.

"What are you staring at?"

Greg's voice brought Nick out of his musings and before he could curb his tongue, he swiftly replied, "You."

He could feel a blush spreading across the back of his neck as Greg smirked at him, "I got that, Nick. But why? Do I have something on my face? Those sundaes were pretty messy."

Nick shook his head and took another sip of his beer, "No, no. You're okay." A glance at the clock had him wincing. It was that time of the night, "Maddy, bed time."

"Noo, I don't wanna! I ain't tired! Greg, tell him!" Maddy all but squealed, clutching Greg's arm with both little hands.

Greg laughed and untangled himself before standing up, "Come on short stuff, it's nearly ten. If your dad says its bed time, I can't really go against him."

"It's not fair! You stay up late. 'Sides, I slept a lot today!" Maddy pouted, turning imploring blue eyes Nick's way.

"That's 'cause we're adults. When you're older, you can stay up as late as you want." Nick stood up and deposited his bottle in the sink before turning back to his daughter, "Come on Roo. If you go to bed now, we'll see if Greg will come with us to the park tomorrow afternoon if you're feeling better. He could use a good walk."

"Hey, don't use me as an incentive cowboy," Greg muttered, putting his own bottle in the sink.

Maddy frowned at both men for a second, "What's a 'centive?"

Nick wondered how to phrase that description into words a four year old would understand. Before he had a chance to even try, Greg snorted and lifted Maddy up into his arms. Nick, who was still trying to think of an easy way to describe incentive, didn't see the wince or the subtle shifting Greg did of his hold on Maddy, "Come on. While your old man mulls over that I'll read you a story."

"K."

Nick followed behind them, marveling at how his daughter and Greg had taken to each other. Maddy had never liked Nick dating in the past and had always done something to sabotage the relationships. And while he wasn't in one with Greg, the fact that Maddy was so enamored with him gave Nick high hopes for the future.

Reading to Maddy at night wasn't so much the men reading to her, but more of her reading to them. The only thing Nick and Greg were there for were the harder words in the book and to hold it for her as she ran her finger along the short sentences.

Nick still remembered the look on Greg's face when Maddy started reading over him with a scowl on her face. Nick swore he had never laughed as hard as he had when Greg turned bewildered eyes his way. There was no doubt that his daughter was a little on the precocious side.

* * *

Greg jumped awake as his bed shook lightly. Prying his eyes open, he looked up to see blue eyes staring down at him, free of their glasses, "Greg? You up?"

"Uhh…" He rolled over onto his side, "Maybe? What's up, chicka-roo?"

"I feel much," She paused as a small sneeze punctuated by three larger ones erupted before continuing, "Better. Can we go outside?"

Greg raised a skeptical eyebrow at Maddy. He raised his hand and pressed the back of it against her forehead, "You're still feeling a bit warm. Maybe after your nap?"

Maddy shook her head as she bounced on her knees, "That's tooooo long!"

"You don't want to get even sicker do you?"

Maddy shook her head again.

"Well, then, you're gunna have to take your medicine and your nap after lunch. Then, by the time your dad gets home, you might just be feeling good enough to go to the park."

Maddy scrunched up her nose before nodding, "Okay. Breakfast now?"

Greg groaned. This babysitting was fairly easy, but keeping up with a four-year-old was like riding on a rollercoaster. Up, down, and all around with a little bit of screaming for fair measure. Add into that two still painful ribs and it made for a hell of a ride. He sat up with a groan, "Okay, breakfast."

"Yay! I want pancakes!" Maddy jumped off the bed and ran out of the room.

"Pancakes," He muttered, "We had pancakes yesterday before she got picked up and the day before…and why on earth am I talking to myself?" He shook his head and climbed off the bed carefully before slipping into the bathroom that his room shared with Maddy's.

He usually used Nick's because he was highly conscious of the fact that Maddy could walk in on him at any time, and the door to the guestroom was the only one that locked. While it was a good precaution to keep Maddy from locking herself in, it made it hard for him to make sure she stayed out. He figured he was okay for the moment though, as he had heard Maddy gallop down the stairs at her usual speed.

Once his ablutions were finished, he pulled on a t-shirt and went downstairs, amused to find Maddy already had the bisquick out, "Why don't we have something different today?"

She gave him the stink-eye, a look that had him shivering slightly. That was the look Mark's youngest gave him just before a bite and kick to the ankle, "Pancakes."

He held up his hands in surrender. He knew when to back down gracefully, "Pancakes."

* * *

Nick was about to pound his desk in frustration. It was as if Andrea, Mark and their kids just vanished into thin air. He sighed and pushed away from the desk, grabbing his coat as he stood up.

Nick walked out of the bullpen and down to Brass' office that he kept at the station. The door was open, so Nick knocked on the frame, "I'm going to go to the Colton's house, see if the neighbors know anything."

Brass looked at him, a gleam in his eye, "You can't go in the house without a warrant."

Nick's smile was rueful, "I know."

"What about the school?"

"Again, not without a warrant," Nick said with a shake of his head, "The principal is very strict on that."

Brass cocked an eyebrow, "You already tried?"

"Yesterday afternoon."

"All right. Let me know what you find out. If the neighbors haven't seen or heard anything, give me a call."

"Will do."

The Colton's lived in a decent area of Henderson. The whole neighborhood was full of normal, two story homes, all with the average age of forty years. He found the Colton's house easily enough. It was the largest house in the area and from the looks of it, the oldest as well.

Nick wondered briefly how a family of four with a stay at home mom could afford such a place as well as tuition to the Montessori school, but dismissed the thought as he had no idea what Mark did for a living.

He pulled up to the curb and turned off the truck. Nick sat for a moment and took in the two brand new cars in the driveway, the truck attached to a large camper along the side of the garage and the array of expensive looking toys in the yard. The house was quiet and rather dark looking, even though it was two in the afternoon.

With a small sigh, Nick climbed out of the truck. He walked up to the front door with a feeling that no one would be answering it. He was proved right rather quickly. He turned around and wondered which house to visit first.

Nick was about to just start on his right and work his way around but movement across the street caught his eye. He shaded his eyes with his hand and peered at the house. There was a curtain falling into place.

"Excellent." He muttered as he stepped off the porch. A busybody, given that this street had no 'Neighborhood Watch' signs posted that he could see.

It certainly didn't take long for the door to be answered. One knock and it practically swung open, "Can I help you?" The lady who answered was maybe in her fifties, and Nick only thought fifties because it was obvious that she had plastic surgery at some point, and dressed in a flannel robe despite the heat of the day.

"I'm detective Nick Stokes. I've been trying to locate the Colton's. Your neighbors across the street," Nick said, turning up the charm as much as possible.

The charm didn't work, "Why do you want them? They're good people," She said, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"Just have a few questions for them, ma'am, about an ongoing case."

Her face cleared and she smiled slightly, "I haven't seen Andrea in almost two weeks. Mark and the kids, well, they left on Tuesday night. A big SUV that's been over there a few times before, stopped and picked them up. Mark looked awfully worried."

Nick nodded as he wrote this down, "Did you see a license plate number or the drivers face?"

She shook her head, "No, didn't see the plate and the driver…not very clearly. He was Hispanic but beyond that…"

Nick smiled at her, "Thank you ma'am. You've been a big help."

"Glad I could help."

Nick turned and started to the truck. He pulled out his cell and called Brass, "Talked to the neighbor. Andrea Colton has been missing for two weeks or so and her husband and kids have been missing since Tuesday."

There was a significant pause, /**Tuesday is the night Sanders' apartment blew up. Hmm…Nick, come back to the precinct. There's something I need to show you. Homicide just brought it in./**

Nick frowned, "All right. Be there in a few." He hung up and climbed into the truck. It was a good twenty five minutes to the precinct from where he was. Nick made it in less than twenty.

He walked into Brass' office without knocking, "All right, what's going on?"

Brass tossed a file across the desk, "Apparently we've been keeping this case locked too tight. We might have gotten this sooner otherwise."

Nick's brows furrowed as he reached for the folder. He flipped the cover as he lifted it and gaped, "Holy Shit!"

TBC….


	7. Chapter Six

Hello my lovely readers! I would like to apologize for the length of time it took to get this out. Laziness on my part and lack of muse. So, this isn't necessarily long, in fact its short compared to some of my other chapters but…yeah. Enjoy and I hope that you don't kill me when you finish…

* * *

Greg knew he really shouldn't have bent Nick's rules but Maddy's fever was gone and she was much too restless to have cooped up in the house. He made sure to keep a shrewd eye on her as she ran helter skelter around the backyard, though, just in case.

He licked his lips and grimaced at how dry his mouth was. Greg knew it was a side effect of the medicine he was still taking, but he hated that he felt like he was thirsty all the time, "Maddy, come on chicka-roo. I'm thirsty and it's lunch time."

"Aww, Greg…" she whined as she ran towards him, "Just a little longer?"

He shook his head and hoisted her up into his arms, heedful of his ribs, "I'm dying of thirst and…" he paused and then laughed when her stomach seemed to growl on cue, loud enough for him to hear it, "I can tell you're hungry."

She huffed and wrapped her arms around his neck, "S'not fair. Why can't we eat outside?"

He gave her his own version of the stink-eye, "Because we'd still have to go inside to make the food. It's more comfortable to eat inside where it's air conditioned anyway."

"I still think…" Maddy trailed off with a scream as a man materialized in front of them, gun aimed and steady in his hand.

"Why Greg, I was wondering where you've been hiding. I've missed you at work," Jeremy shot Maddy a disgusted look as she started bawling, "Shut her up."

Greg swallowed thickly as he tightened his arms around Maddy. He turned his attention to her, "Shh, chicka-roo, its okay. I've got you, okay?" He whispered, lips pressed to her temple. He smiled slightly when she nodded before looking at Jeremy, "What do you want?"

"I would have thought that was obvious, Sanders." Jeremy's voice sounded congenial, but the look in his eye was crazed and Greg was beginning to wonder if either him or Maddy were going to come away from this encounter alive, "We're going for a little drive. Now, I know I don't look like much of a bad guy here, holding this little gun. If it were just me, you could probably make a run for it. I've seen you run and I know this kid wouldn't put a crimp in your speed so I brought back up. He is also going to be our…chauffeur."

Greg backed up an inch or so and stopped immediately when he felt the end of a gun barrel at the small of his back, "Move," A voice growled at him from behind and Greg started moving forward, following Jeremy out the side door.

Jeremy opened the back door to a small black SUV that had tinted windows. No one would be able to see him or Maddy through the windows, not that anyone would be watching for them and Nick wasn't due home for another couple of hours.

Greg climbed in and Maddy turned around practically right away and plastered herself to his chest, her face buried in his neck. Greg re-wrapped his arms around Maddy and promptly grunted as Jeremy, who had climbed in the SUV on the opposite side, grabbed his hair in a fist and tugged him sideways, "You've still got a gun on you Sanders. I wouldn't move an inch if I were you."

Greg took the advice and stayed tilted sideways. It didn't take long to figure out what was going on when Jeremy wrapped a piece of cloth around Greg's head, "You touch that and I shoot. I'd tie you up, but I like this approach a bit better," Jeremy said, a sneer in his voice.

Any hope Greg had had when they had gotten into the SUV evaporated with the strip of cloth. Jeremy could dump them in the desert and they would never find their way back.

The car ride was long, and given that there was a gun pointed at them, relatively uneventful. Greg was pretty clueless on the area of Vegas that Nick resided in as it was and all the turns that the driver had taken seemed beyond pointless to him, given that he was blindfolded. He had no idea where they were or where they were headed and he also had no idea how Nick was going to take to the fact that, because of Greg, his daughter had been kidnapped.

* * *

Nick flipped through the file and shook his head as he read, "This is unreal."

"We had full co-operation of her husband up until Tuesday when he and their children disappeared." Detective Morrison sighed, "We haven't got any evidence, no suspects, no _witnesses_. It happened in front of a school that was let out early that day and yet it was like there was a curtain between the shooting and all of the people."

Nick looked up from the file with a frown, "How do you know it happened after school let out?"

Morrison shrugged, "A few of the parents remembered talking to Colton as the bell rang. They all said the same thing. They exchanged words, the bell rang and the parents all turned to towards the door to watch the kids flow out of the building. They turned back to continue the conversation and Colton was gone. Fifteen minutes later, a babysitter for another kid found Colton's body and called it in."

Nick flipped the file closed and stared at the photo of Colton. She was a pretty lady with definite Hispanic roots. If Nick had to guess, he'd say she was at least half of something; Mexican, Cuban or even Puerto Rican; and half Caucasian. That had him thinking back on what the neighbor had told him. That Mark and the kids were picked up Tuesday by a Hispanic man. Nick had to wonder if it was a relative of Colton's.

"She was shot close range," Nick muttered, as he handed the file to Brass, "and probably with a silencer if no one noticed."

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, trying to connect the dots between Colton's murder and Greg's abduction:

_Greg climbed out of the truck and grimaced when he heard a bell in the distance and a sudden onslaught of yelling and laughing, "Looks like schools out." _

_Jeremy looked across the seats at his partner and winked, "What's the matter Greg? Don't like kids?" _

_Greg grabbed his case from behind the seat and gave a shrug in response to Jeremy's question, "I guess we head to the office first? Check to see if the guy is actually here?" _

"_Works for me." Jeremy grabbed his own case and slammed the trucks door shut, "I've never been here before. For all I know, the teachers' park on the roof." _

"_Or they all fly in. It's just as likely as them parking on the roof of a school." Greg ignored the scowl Jeremy aimed his way and looked up at the school. Sure enough, kids were flowing out of the school like a giant wave of color and noise. Deciding to wait out the stampede, Greg looked around, wondering where the teachers' lot actually was. _

_He did a double take when he saw a flash of familiar black hair and light blue jacket, "Andrea?" _

Nick opened his eyes, "There's still a piece missing. Something has to connect Colton to Greg and Kastner."

Morrison tapped the file on the edge of the desk, "Maybe she was a drug runner," he said in an amused tone, proving he was joking.

For Nick, it was like a light bulb went on, "Morrison, what does her husband do for a living?"

"Uhm," Morrison flipped through the folder sitting on Brass' desk, "He works at a loading dock for…Costco."

Nick stared at him for a moment, "That's a fairly low paying job."

"So?"

"Their oldest son went to the Montessori school. Their house was pretty big; they had three vehicles and a camper. How did they afford it?" Nick asked, leaning forward.

"Inheritance?"

"Maybe. Is there a way we can check?"

Brass shrugged, "Possibly. Look into it."

* * *

Greg blinked as the cloth strip was ripped from his head and the sunlight assaulted his eyes. He followed his first instinct and checked on Maddy, who looked okay physically but her face was ashen and she was shaking in his arms.

"Out of the car."

Greg looked up at Jeremy and found the gun aimed at Maddy's back. He froze for a split second before nodding and opening the door. The driver was standing there with a gun as well and Greg knew then that it would be pointless to run. He also realized that the chances of getting out of this alive were slim. He knew Nick would move heaven and earth to find his daughter, but there would be no trail to follow.

Which left it up to Greg to save them and he had very little options available to him. He tightened his grip on Maddy and looked around surreptitiously. They were in a small clearing outside a rather nice looking cabin, in the middle of God knows where. There were trees surrounding the area except for the small track of dirt that doubled as a road. They were also quite high as one side of the clearing sloped downwards and Greg could see tops of trees in the distance. So…mountain. Not exactly a good thing.

"Move." He felt the barrel of the gun at his back again and started towards the cabin. Once inside, Jeremy motioned to the floor, "Put her down."

Greg frowned at him but didn't release his hold on the four-year-old. Jeremy, it seemed, was not in the mood for games of any sort and raised the gun. Greg flinched as it went off and a hole appeared in the wall next to his head. Maddy screamed and tightened her grip as the fear finally took hold and she started to cry again.

"Put her down or the next one goes in your head and I don't want to do that. Not yet anyway," Jeremy said, a sneer twisting his lips.

Greg nodded and kneeled down on the floor. He grabbed Maddy's legs and unwrapped them from his waist and, once he was certain she was standing on her own, unwrapped her arms from his neck, "It'll be okay chicka-roo, promise," he whispered, kissing her forehead, which was starting to feel warm again.

When she nodded, Greg stood up and faced Jeremy, hands spread at his side. Jeremy motioned at a chair with the gun. Greg got the hint and walked over to sit down.

"Now this is more like it. Do you know," Jeremy said, as he started wrapping ropes around Greg's chest, "What I have gone through in the last two weeks? All because of you and that stupid friendship you had with Mark. I lost any good standing in the lab which meant I lost standing in the organization. I also lost my cousin because of you and a partner lost his sister. Now, I don't know about you, but I think that's a lot of loss for two little weeks. I think it's time you pay for it."

Jeremy stepped back and surveyed his handy work with a smug little smile, "Where to start? How about your obviously still sore ribs?" He lashed out and a fist connected squarely on the cracked ribs.

Greg didn't cry out but it was a close thing. He bit his lip when the fist connected a second time, tasting blood as he broke the skin. The third time, he couldn't hold back the yell of pain as still knitting bones splintered under the onslaught. He heard Maddy cry out as well through her tears and wished to God she wasn't witnessing this.

The beating moved up to his face and while he didn't pass out, he did come close a couple of times. When Jeremy finally took a break after a long focus on his arms and legs, Greg looked around through his one good eye. Maddy was huddled up in a corner, arms wrapped tight around her knees and staring at Jeremy with wide eyes. She wasn't crying anymore, but looked like she was ready to break into tears at any moment.

Greg's resolve strengthened at that. He had to protect Maddy. He dropped his head slowly so that to Jeremy, it looked like he was giving up. Instead, he took in the ropes wrapped around his chest. They weren't tight but they weren't very loose either. He could move a bit but not enough to loosen them. He didn't see the knot anywhere within his field of vision but…

Watching Jeremy through his fringe he carefully and slowly tilted his hands upward and began feeling around, suddenly incredibly grateful that Jeremy had tied his hands behind the chair when he found the knot holding him to the chair. Feeling around, he realized that he would probably be able to untie himself from the chair, but his hands would be stuck. He needed to untie those first.

As he was working at the ropes binding his hands, he heard the SUV start up and Jeremy swear. His old co-worker ran out of the cabin yelling and waving his arms.

Greg took the chance, "Maddy, I need your help. Hurry sweetie."

Maddy stood on wobbly legs and slowly made her way over, keeping her eyes on the door leading outside. When she reached Greg, she lifted her small hand and patted his cheek softly, much like she had the first time they met.

"I'm okay baby. I need you to untie the ropes around my wrists. I got it started, but I can't reach to do more. Don't touch the one around my chest, okay?"

"Okay." she whispered. She moved behind him and started picking at the rope he had been working on.

"Make sure once it's loose to tuck it in, like you do with your bear. Remember?"

"Yeah."

While she worked, Greg kept a close ear and eye on the commotion outside, hoping that the argument lasted long enough for his hands to be free. His hoping came true, but just barely. As Maddy whispered, "Done," there was a slamming of a car door and squealing of tires in gravel.

"Get back in the corner Maddy, now!" Greg hissed.

Maddy didn't need to be told twice. She bolted across the room and stood in the corner shivering as Jeremy pounded back in. He looked at Greg, and then at Maddy before scowling, "What the hell is going on in here?"

Jeremy started towards Greg but Maddy managed to stop him, "I have'ta go potty!" She yelled, tears pouring down her face again.

"Jesus Christ, are you fucking kidding me? We've only been here for an hour!" Jeremy all but yelled. He walked over and grabbed Maddy's arm, jerking her across the room, "You better make it quick. I wouldn't let you go at all but I don't want to deal with the mess."

When he came back with a quiet Maddy in tow, it seemed that he had forgotten whatever suspicions he had when he had walked back in the cabin. Maddy went to her corner and Jeremy went to the table, where he had been working before the fight had erupted outside. When he finally turned to Greg, there was a malicious smile growing slowly on his face.

"I have it all planned out, you see. Your death, finding little miss Maddy there wandering in the park, too traumatized to speak. It'll get me back into everyone's good graces. I'll be trusted again. By Grissom, by De Luca…The only little cloud will be your death. Sadly, they'll forget about you quick enough. You always did annoy Sidle, Brown and Willows and as for Grissom, well, even if you did have a gleam of respect from him I doubt it will take long for him to forget you.

"Stokes, of course, will be too pissed at you for getting his daughter kidnapped to look too closely into your death and when your body does turn up, you'll be so decayed they will never find the cause of death or be able to link it to me at all. Sounds beautiful, doesn't it?"

Greg started to methodically work at the knot of the rope holding him to the chair as Jeremy spoke. He knew most of what Jeremy was saying wasn't true, but each barb hit its mark dead on. Hell, he'd be lucky if they got out of this and Nick spoke two words to him at all.

Greg froze when Jeremy held up something that was very much not a gun, "Motherfucker," he muttered.

Jeremy tsk'ed and shook his head slowly, "Such a dirt mouth you have Mister Sanders, saying that in front of a child. You remember this, don't you?" He waved what he was holding, "Remember that case we worked a few months back? Oh yes, you remember. You see, I remember your response to it clear as day. Pale, shaken up, all because of a little needle.

"Amazing really. These things are used so competently in the medical profession but one little slip up and suddenly, instant death from a tiny little air bubble to the heart. Clean, efficient…"

Greg's hearing hollowed out as he stared at the instrument in Jeremy's hands. A small, empty, hypodermic needle.

TBC...


	8. Chapter Seven

All right ladies…and gentlemen if there are any reading this XD… here we have chapter seven of Beautiful Disaster. I will warn you now, things may not go how you thought they would...mostly because I am just evil like that.

While this whole story is dedicated to my friend and beta Geraldine, this chapter in particular is a gift for her for finishing her graduate work. –claps- I am so proud of you Geraldine. After this there will be about one more chapter and an epilogue…well, that's the plan anyway. I hope you all enjoy…and do forgive me for the shortness.

* * *

Nick dropped the folder on his desk and shook his head, "Nothing that looks like an inheritance. It looks almost like there are two incomes in that house, one of them substantially large, but Greg said that Colton was a stay at home mom."

Morrison looked up from his own folder, "You know, I'm starting to like that drug runner theory better and better. The money would make sense."

"If we go with that theory then we have to figure out which of the drug bosses here in Vegas is behind it…and what it has to do with Greg." Nick leaned back in his chair and stared at the wall above Morrison. A few seconds later, he sat up straight and turned to his case-partner with wide eyes, "I don't know why the hell I didn't think of this before, but let's do a background check on Kastner and Colton."

Morrison frowned as he turned to the computer, "What kind of connection are we looking for?"

"Anything you can find man. Business, family, school…something," Nick said, turning to his own computer, "I'm going to dig more into the Colton's finance history while you're at it."

Morrison mumbled an affirmative as his fingers flew across the keyboard in front of him. All was silent in their corner of the bull pen for at least twenty minutes as both men dug into the histories of the two common links with Greg. It was shattered, however, when Nick's desk phone rang shrilly at his elbow.

He glanced at the clock with a frown before picking up the receiver, "Hello?"

/"Detective Stokes? It's Carol Owenby."/

Nick's eyes narrowed in worry. His neighbor had never called him at work before, even though she did have his extension for emergencies, "Mrs. Owenby? Is everything okay?"

/"No, detective, it's not. I was just bringing soup by your place for Greg and Maddy and…"/ She sniffed and Nick felt his heart clench in chest, /"They're gone, detective. The back door was wide open and some of Maddy's toys were not picked up out back."/

Nick's hand tightened around the receiver, "What time did you notice?"

/"Just now. I'm standing at the fence. I'm on my cell."/

"Okay, I'm on my way."

Nick all but slammed the phone down, not caring that he had pretty much hung up on his neighbor. His daughter and his…well, Greg were gone. He looked at Morrison with crazed eyes, "We need to get to my house _now_."

Morrison didn't question him. He grabbed his gun from the drawer and was out the door in seconds with Nick in the lead. The Texan stopped at Brass' office, "Greg and Maddy are gone."

Brass frowned, "How did you find out? I never got a call from the uniforms watching your house."

"My neighbor called me. The back door was open and they were gone."

"Something must have happened to the uniforms. Okay, I'll call Grissom to get someone over to your place to take prints."

Nick nodded and took off down the hall.

-...-

Greg winced as the needle was shoved into the carotid artery in his neck. He stared up at Kastner, even as his breathing sped up. This was not at all how he wanted to die. He would rather go in his sleep, as old as his Papa Olaf. Not at 30 with a four-year-old watching. Kastner would get one thing right, Maddy would be beyond traumatized.

He heard her scream in the corner as Jeremy pushed on the plunger, pushing air into his artery. Greg could feel the blood pounding in his veins and his heart was speeding up considerably. He wondered if he was going to die of a heart attack before the air even hit his heart.

Jeremy yanked the needle out of his neck and walked away from Greg, whistling a jaunty tune that wasn't in any way familiar to him. Greg dropped his chin to his chest and wondered just how long it was going to take for death to claim him. In the case he had worked, Doc Robbins had said that death would have been instantaneous due to the speed that blood flowed through veins. If that was the case, shouldn't he already be dead, especially since his heart was pumping faster with the adrenalin?

Confused, and more than a little thankful, Greg started to work at the bindings around his wrist. By now, Kastner was probably sure that Greg was actually dead. He was certainly taking his sweet time packing things up.

Watching Kastner reaching for the phone through his swollen eye-lids, Greg finally pulled the rope free from his wrists. He was tempted to just jump up and start beating on Kastner, but he knew he wasn't quite strong enough for that tactic, even if he did have the element of surprise on his side. He cocked his head slightly to the side and flicked his gaze to Maddy.

The toddler was sitting there, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. She was shaking her head back and forth, her eyes wide and locked on Greg. Greg smiled at her and winked. It was a long shot that Maddy wouldn't inform Kastner that he was alive in some way, but it was better in the long run that she knew he _was_ alive.

He watched as she smiled brightly, flicked her eyes to Kastner and then promptly stuffed her fist in her mouth. He nodded at her, proud. He turned his attention back to Kastner who had hung up the phone.

"All right kid, we are out of here," he said, slinging a bag over his shoulder. He walked over to Maddy and roughly pulled her up into his arms. Maddy gave up the pretense and reached for Greg, screaming his name.

Thankfully, Kastner took that as remorse and laughed, "He's gone kid. "

They started out of the cabin and Greg knew it was time. He got to his feet, biting back the yelp of pain that shot through him at the movement. He looked around through his swollen eyes but couldn't see anything that would help defend himself against Kastner and the bastard still had the gun. This was going to end badly. He knew it.

He limped to the door and peeked out, finding Kastner cursing at an old, crappy looking four wheeler that was against the side of the house. Maddy was still crying and straining in his arms, which was probably adding to his frustration over the derelict machine. When Kastner turned and started back for the door, Greg made his move.

He burst out the door as fast as he could and the surprise on Kastner's face would have made him laugh if the man hadn't dropped Maddy. She landed on her rear end and scooted away from the man, taking refuge behind the four wheeler.

Greg jumped the porch, ignoring the pain, and dived for Kastner.

-...-

Nick stared around his kitchen in shock. Other than the toys scattered in the backyard and the wide open back door, there was no indication that anything was wrong. The kitchen looked just as it had when he left that morning.

"I've got multiple prints here." Warrick said from his position by the door, "I'll get them back to the lab and have Jacqui start on them ASAP."

Nick nodded, "Thanks Warrick."

Warrick nodded and closed up his case, "No problem man. We'll find them."

"I hope so." Nick knew there wasn't much he could do here. The uniform that had been positioned on watch at his house was fine but nursing a massive headache and had already been questioned as thoroughly as possible. He followed Warrick out of the house and looked out over his backyard. The toys wouldn't have been a massive indication that something was wrong except for the fact that Maddy always picked them up when she was done playing due to having many of her toys stolen at their last house.

His cell ringing jolted him out of his musings and he yanked it out of his pocket, "What have you got?" Burst out of his mouth after he checked the caller ID.

/"A hit on Morrison's search. Colton and Kastner were cousins. We also found that Colton's brother is one of the right hand men of Antony De Luca."/ Brass said, ignoring Nick's sharpness.

"Shit."

/My thoughts exactly. It seems that Colton's husband wasn't a part of it, but…/

"He had to have known. That isn't exactly something you can hide," Nick said, and then paused, "I think I know what's going on."

/"Well don't keep me in suspense."/

Nick sighed, "I have a feeling Colton was doing a drop near the school while waiting for her kid. Kastner knew about it and when Greg saw Colton and called out to her, Kastner panicked and kidnapped Greg."

Brass was silent for a moment, /"It fits with everything we have, but there's no physical evidence."/

"I know. We need to find Greg. Fast."

-...-

"What the fuck? You were dead!" Kastner screamed, scrambling for the gun at his hip with one hand while the other went up in an attempt to defend himself from Greg.

"Apparently not man." Greg growled, throwing a punch at Kastner's face, "Next time, check to make sure your victim is actually dead."

The fight that followed was not spectacular by any means and even Greg, who liked to embellish on his escapades, would attest to that. Kastner was too busy to do much than defend himself as he grasped for the gun and Greg was in too much pain to do much more than short, shallow jabs to the man's face.

It came to a head, however, when Kastner finally got a good enough grip on the gun and pulled it out, aiming it at Greg's face. Greg grabbed the hand holding the gun and began pushing it away from him and away from Maddy.

It went off once and smashed a window followed by another shot that hit the porch railing. Greg tightened the grip he had on the gun the best that he could and grit his teeth as Kastner began trying to jerk it away from him. Kastner managed to down swing the gun just as it went off again and Greg yelled as a bullet tore through his knee and nicked the back of the other knee.

All he wanted to do was lie down and yell in pain, but the fight was far from over. Instead, Greg clenched his teeth against the pain and shifted all of his weight onto the less damaged leg. He re-tightened his grip and this time was more active in trying to actually remove the gun from Kastner's hand. He didn't succeed.

Instead, he saw Kastner's finger tightening on the trigger again and Greg managed to use his left hand to turn the barrel of the gun so it was facing Kastner. Kastner realized what had happened, but it was too late. He had squeezed the trigger at the same moment of realization. The gun went off for the last time, killing Kastner and burning Greg's hand in the process.

Greg stumbled back and fell to the ground almost in sync with Kastner's body. He looked around and found Maddy staring at him from over the seat of the four wheeler, her face red and blotchy, "Greg?"

"I'm alright. I'm alright." He smiled through the haze of pain as Maddy ran out from her hiding spot and dropped to his side, "We need to get off this mountain Chicka-roo."

Maddy looked over her shoulder at the four wheeler, "The bad man said that was the only way off when he was saying bad words to it."

Greg sighed before nodding, "Okay, I know he has a cell phone, but he was using a sat phone while we were inside so obviously no cell service out here." He managed to climb to his feet and hopped to the cabin steps. He leaned on the railing to rest for a moment and cast Maddy a large grin to try and ease her large, tear filled eyes, "I'm fine, Chicka-roo. Promise."

Maddy looked in no way convinced but didn't say anything, just continued to follow Greg as he hopped into the house.

Greg bit back a yell of shocked dismay when he looked at the counter. The bullet that had gone through the window had also gone through the sat phone, pretty much destroying any chance of calling for help, "Okay…okay Sanders, think!" He looked out the window at Kastner's body and sighed. There was no two ways about it. They were going to have to go down the mountain on foot until they could get cell phone service.

* * *

TBC…


	9. Chapter Eight

Okay, so, you all should be thanking Geraldine for this chapter….cause let me tell you, it is out wa~ay faster than my previous record for updating would indicate. Thanks to Geraldine for beta'ing of course and any mistakes she didn't catch are mine….Enjoy….and don't kill me….otherwise this will never get finished and you don't want that. There are still some loose ends here.

* * *

There were, unfortunately, a few things that needed to be done before Greg could even think of taking Maddy down the mountain on foot. The first thing, and probably the most important, was to stop the bleeding from the bullet holes in his knee. Well, not stop as such but at least try to slow it. Greg looked around the cabin, wondering what he could use.

He hobbled to the bathroom and opened the closet door before letting out a sigh. Bless Kastner's evil little heart. The closet was stocked with first aid products. He grabbed a handful of flat gauze pads and a roll of sticky tape before hobbling back out of the bathroom. He wondered if it was a stroke of luck that he had thrown on shorts that morning because after everything that had happened; he wasn't sure how Maddy would take to him dropping his pants.

Greg dropped down on the kitchen chair and looked at his knee, "Maddy, could you help me?"

She peered up at him with her wide brown eyes, "What do you need?"

"A wet cloth," Greg said, wiping a finger through the blood that was leaving drying trails down his leg. He wasn't sure of the extent of the damage and he couldn't tell _exactly _where the hole was thanks to all of the blood. The burning pain encompassed his whole knee, so he couldn't use that as an indicator either.

Maddy ran quickly to the sink and grabbed the towel that was hanging over the edge. She turned to the table and was about to push one of its chairs to the counter when Greg stopped her, "Check and see if there is any bottled water in the fridge." This high up away from the city, whatever water the cabin was hooked to was probably well water and that was just a fast track to infection.

"Greg, I found a bottle." Maddy scampered back to Greg and held out both items.

Greg took them and flipped the top off of the water. He doused the cloth and began wiping away at the blood. As he got closer to the hole, his stomach started to turn and he began to feel nauseous from both the pain and the _thought_ of a hole that he knew was straight through. When he had all but a half inch circle cleaned around the bullet hole, both the entry hole and exit, he gave up. Any closer and he would most definitely lose his breakfast.

He dropped the rag and picked up a handful of the gauze pads, separating them into two piles, "Okay, here is what I need you to do, chicka-roo. I'll hold the gauze down and I need to you to take the tape and start wrapping around my knee, okay?"

Maddy nodded, her face pale from watching Greg clean the wound. Greg wished to God he could have spared her this, but he really needed the extra hands. He pressed the gauze to both sides of his knee and hissed at the pain. He closed his eyes to try and ward off the sudden stars that started to swirl around his head while he willed himself not to just pass out from the agony of it.

Maddy grabbed up the tape and began wrapping it around Greg's knee. When she had made two passes, Greg was able to move his hands and take over the wrapping. Once that was accomplished, Greg stood up. Now it was time to gather the necessities. Bug spray was a must, as he just knew the woods were full of ticks and other biting menaces. Food and water was needed as well, as well as something to carry it all in. Greg also had to grab Kastner's phone. After taking a cautious step, which was more like a hop than anything, he realized that a crutch would be a needed accessory as well.

He sent Maddy to looking through the cupboards while he looked for something to carry everything in. To his surprise, he found a set of crutches in the small room that was being passed off as a bedroom. Unfortunately, he also found a nice stash of what appeared to be drugs just laying out on the top of the tall dresser. He recognized the weed easily enough, the rest he could only guess as to what they were.

Greg found a duffle in the closet, but after seeing the cache of drugs, he wasn't going to use it for food and water transport. Growling in annoyance, he slammed the closet shut and crutched his way into the bathroom. There, he found the much needed bug spray and an itch relief pen. He grabbed both. He also grabbed a bottle of aspirin that was sitting on the counter. At least, he really hoped it was aspirin but at this point his knee was burning so badly that he didn't care much.

In the kitchen, Maddy had a pile of crackers, snack bars, and four bottles of water sitting on the table, "All I could find," she said softly.

"That's fine, Maddy. We aren't going to be on this mountain long enough to need more than that." Greg said, looking around the living room. He spotted something promising on the couch and was happily surprised to see a small backpack that had a blanket inside. It would have to do. He took the backpack back to the kitchen and began piling their looted goods inside.

One last look around and Greg was sure they had everything they needed. He sprayed down Maddy as well as himself with the bug spray, taking care to spray extra around his knees and his legs. He wasn't sure how long the smell of blood lasted after being wiped off and he could only grimace at the thought off all the bugs that would be attracted to the smell.

Before they even left the cabin, Greg popped open the bottle of aspirin. He was extremely relieved to note that the seal had not even been broken. Doing so quickly, he dumped out three pills and swallowed them dry, "Okay, when we go outside, I want you to watch the woods. Don't look at me until I say it's okay. Got it?"

Maddy nodded slowly. She knew the bad man was dead and she didn't want to look at his body again. Greg steered her outside and away from the corpse of Kastner. He slid the small backpack onto her shoulders before squaring his own shoulders and turning to the body.

He found the cell phone easily enough and was pleased to notice that it wasn't ruined. True, they didn't have any service bars but the battery was full. He noted the time as two thirty and then shut the phone off. Two thirty…had it really only been four hours since Kastner had first grabbed him and Maddy? Truthfully it felt more like days had passed.

He turned, "You ready Maddy?"

Maddy nodded her head, "Yes. Wanna go home."

"All right, let's get moving then."

* * *

Nick watched Jacqui work, his arms crossed across his chest. There were uniforms out looking for his daughter and Greg, but they had very little to go on but a few addresses. Torres, Colton's brother and Kastner's cousin, was in the wind. His apartment was abandoned and looked like it had been for a few days at least. The warrant for Colton's house had come through as well and Nick had been the one to go. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, he had found a stash of cocaine stuffed behind a false panel in the lavish dining room.

There were no clues as to where Maddy could be in the house itself, but one of the uniforms that had accompanied him had found a few addresses that didn't have names with them. It was a small lead, but a lead nonetheless.

So now he was waiting on the fingerprints to run through IAFIS. Jacqui had already cleared Maddy, Greg's, and Nick's prints and was working on the other two sets found in his house. The computer beeped and Nick straightened, looking at Jacqui imploringly.

Jacqui looked at the results before turning the computer to Nick, face ashen. On the screen, Jeremy Kastner was looking back at him from his work ID. Nick scowled, "So he was at the house."

Jacqui nodded, "Looks like it." She looked at Nick, her brown eyes filled with tears, "I hope you find them, detective."

Nick nodded, "So do I."

After Jacqui printed the results for him, Nick left the fingerprint lab and went up to Grissom's office. He knocked on the door frame, interrupting Grissom and Brass. Both men turned to him with a questioning look. Instead of saying anything, he tossed the folder onto Grissom's desk so it landed open. Brass swore and jumped to his feet. Grissom just frowned and adjusted his glasses before pulling the folder closer. After reading over the information in the folder, Grissom sat back with a hum.

Brass shook his head, "Looks like Sanders was right. Kastner was a part of this."

Nick scowled at his boss, "I didn't doubt him. I just wish I could have protected him better."

"We know Nick." Grissom said, trying to diffuse Nick's rising anger.

Brass glanced at the folder, "I'm going to call in for a warrant. This will be enough for Judge Thomas." He grabbed the folder up off of the desk and walked out, heading for the office he had at the lab.

* * *

They started down the mountain, Greg setting the pace. With the holes in his knee, the graze on the back of his opposite knee, the burn on his hand (which he was valiantly ignoring, if he did say so himself), and the other various problems he had from Kastner pretty much beating him up, the pace was slow going. He was still in an appalling amount of pain, despite the three aspirin he had downed.

Walking on the overgrown gravel and dirt road was difficult. The crutch kept sinking into hidden divots of soft sand and the few times he needed to put his weight on his bad leg, he managed to do so on a rock.

Half a mile down the mountain took nearly an hour to traverse because of his injuries. Greg had to stop at this point to rest. His head was spinning and his stomach was about two steps from revolting. He found a decent sized rock on the side of the road and he carefully lowered himself down. Greg took a few deep breaths and looked at Maddy. The poor girl was shaking, or rather, he supposed, shivering would be a better term. He knew it was from fear and worry and not because she was cold. It was the middle of summer, and while it was cooler up on the side of the mountain, it was still near a hundred degrees.

"Maddy, bring the backpack here," he said through his clenched teeth.

Maddy slid the backpack off of her shoulders and handed it to Greg. He took it from her and pulled a bottle of water out. He handed it to Maddy before digging one out for himself. After a few deep pulls, he pulled out the cell phone and turned it on. He scowled. There were still no bars.

"Got a bit further to go, chicka-roo." He smiled reassuringly at her, "You hungry?"

She shook her head and handed her bottle back, "I have to go potty Greg."

Greg blanched, "Pee or poop?" He asked with a wince.

Maddy frowned as if she were actually contemplating which one she had to do, "Pee."

Greg sighed, relieved. He reached into the backpack and pulled out a couple of the gauze pads, "Use this as toilet paper. You can squat behind the rock. Just make sure to keep your pants out of the way."

Her frown deepened and Greg knew it was probably because she had never actually gone to the bathroom outside before. He decided that if they got off this mountain, and after his obligatory stay in the hospital, Greg was going to take Maddy and Nick camping…that is if Nick would still talk to him after this was all done.

Maddy took the gauze from him and walked around behind the rock. Greg tuned her out the best he could and made a show of rustling through the backpack. Less than a minute later she was standing in front of him again, nose wrinkled as she held out the gauze, "What do I do with it?"

Greg shrugged carefully. It's not as if there were any garbage cans up this way, "Just toss it into the woods."

Once that was done, Greg climbed back to his feet. He nearly groaned in agony as his body stretched. Sitting had been a really bad idea. His whole body had tightened up and his knee was feeling like someone was holding a burning lighter to the skin.

"All right, let's get going."

This time, Greg couldn't keep the grunts of pain behind his clenched teeth. The small break had definitely made the pain worse. They managed to make it another half mile before it happened. The crutch, which Greg had taken to leaning on more and more, hit an animal burrow that was hidden beneath a tall shrub of grass. The crutch kicked out from beneath him and he stumbled. In an effort to catch himself, he accidentally put all of his weight onto his bad leg which instantly gave out on him. He went down and landed on a pile of rocks. He let out a scream of pain before the world went black.

* * *

Nick sighed in desperation. Kastner's apartment had the same abandoned feeling as Torres' had, like someone hadn't been there in over a week. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprising really, they found a few sample baggies of cocaine and something that Nick thought was heroin but he wasn't sure. They hadn't found anything larger that the sample baggies, but then again, the uniforms were still searching.

"Hey, detective, we found a sheet of paper that has a note on it from Colton. She mentions in it that she had bought a cabin for the family. It might be something to check into."

Nicks heart stuttered. If he were to kidnap someone, he would want to take them to the most desolate place he could. A cabin sounded like the perfect spot to do so, "Give me that."

The uniformed officer handed the sheet of paper over and Nick glanced through it. No address. Of course not, that would be way too easy. There was a reference to a general location, up near Mount Charleston. It helped Nick somewhat, as there were few people that had cabins up on it. Most of the land was state land and those that did have cabins paid a pretty penny for the plot of land.

Nick fumbled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed Morrison, "Did you find any property deeds under Colton or Torres?"

/Hang on…/

Nick tapped his foot while Morrison shuffled through papers on the other end, /Yeah, here we go. 19935 Acre route. Looks like it's near Mount Charleston./

"Great. That's where we are going next," Nick said before he snapped his phone shut and dialed Brass, "Colton bought a cabin on Acre Route. We're heading there now."

/I'll meet you at the turn off./

Nick hung up and whistled to get the attention of the uniforms, "We're heading to Acre Route. Adams, Yates, stay here and keep looking just in case we missed something. If you find anything more to implicate Kastner, great, everyone else head out."

Nick practically ran down the apartment buildings stairs and out to his truck. He slid in and sped off, making sure to flick the sirens of his truck on so he didn't get pulled over by one of his co-workers that weren't part of the hunt. Acre Route was a little known road off of Highway 95, on the North end side of Las Vegas. When he pulled up to the intersection twenty minutes later, Brass was already standing there, shouting orders.

"Drive slow! Keep a look out along the edge of the forest. The cabin is approximately three miles up this gravel road and it is the only cabin out here. You can't miss it."

Nick waved to Brass and drove past, leading the brigade up the overgrown gravel road. He kept it slow, his truck making the slight incline at 20 mph. He almost wished he had stopped to pick up one of the officers before heading up. He was getting a crick in his neck from checking both sides of the road.

At the speed he was going, it took him three minutes to make the first mile. He popped open his cell phone to let Brass know that there was nothing yet and frowned when he saw that he had no reception. With a small growl, he slammed the cell shut and tossed it into the passenger seat.

When he came around a bend in the road, he slammed on the breaks. Kneeling next to a prone figure about three yards up was his daughter. He quickly threw the truck into park and jumped out, "Maddy!"

Maddy looked up at him and let out a loud sob, one that broke his heart to hear. He was surprised when he didn't end up with an armful of four-year-old when she realized it was him.

"Daddy!" She howled, clutching the body tighter, "He won't wake up!"

Nick's heart clenched and he couldn't catch his breath. It seemed as if the panic was doubly strong, from Maddy clutching a dead body with despair and the fact that it was _Greg_ and that they were over before they even got started.

He calmly walked over to his daughter and knelt down next to her. He pulled her into his arms the best he could and just closed his eyes, savoring the feel of having her back. He then took a deep breath and turned to look at Greg. The man had been through hell. Blood soaked gauze was wrapped haphazardly around his knee while the other was covered in the red liquid. His face was bruised and bloody from a split lip and a cut on his eyebrow. Both eyes were swollen and it looked like he had a pin prick of some kind on the side of his neck that had blood smeared from it as well.

Nick nearly jumped out of his skin when Greg gave a low, nearly inaudible groan.

"He keeps doin' that but I can't get him to wake up!" Maddy said, clutching her hands tighter into Greg's t-shirt.

"He's unconscious, Roo," Nick said, trying to hold back the relieved laughter that was bubbling in his throat. Greg was still alive, "It's harder for people to wake up when they are unconscious."

He heard sirens behind him and he stood up to wave down the car. The car stopped behind his truck and Brass climbed out of the passenger seat, "He's alive." Nick said, "We need an ambulance."

Brass nodded and Nick could see the look of relief on his boss's face as the man turned and ducked his head back into the car.

* * *

Nick followed behind the ambulance trying to calm his racing thoughts. He almost wished that Maddy was in the truck with him, just so he had something to ground him. From what little he could glean from Maddy, it seemed Kastner had broken into their house and kidnapped them at gunpoint. She had indicated that the man hadn't been alone, but just the other man had been scary and hadn't said anything.

Kastner had spent most of the time beating up Greg and then had shoved something into Greg's neck. He then had told Maddy that Greg was dead and tried to take her somewhere. Greg then managed to fight Kastner and wound up even more hurt, which Nick read as shot in the knee given what the paramedics found under the gauze, before Kastner was killed. Greg had then gathered up supplies and they had begun trekking down the mountain before Greg screamed and fell. Maddy hadn't been able to tell him, however, how long Greg had been unconscious nor did she know the time that they had left the cabin.

Brass had continued on to the cabin after Greg was loaded into the ambulance and Grissom had been called. He hadn't heard from his boss yet, but Nick hoped that Brass called before Nick got to the hospital and he had to turn his cell phone off.

They arrived at the hospital only minutes later and Nick quickly found a parking spot before hurrying into the ER. He met Grissom at the door, who was waiting with a solemn look on his face, "Greg was just rushed back to surgery and Maddy is in a cubicle getting looked over. Go join her."

Nick nodded and followed Grissom inside, stopping at the desk to find out where his daughter was. He followed the nurse back to where Maddy was and met up with the doctor, "I'm detective Nick Stokes," he said when the doctor gave him a weird look, "Maddy is my daughter."

"I'm Doctor Angrams. You can go in while I check her over."

"Thanks," Nick said, going in ahead of the doctor.

"Daddy!" Maddy exclaimed, looking up from the stuffed puppy she was playing with, "Look what Mister Andrew gave me."

Nick smiled, "It's cute Roo. Does he have a name?"

"Uh huh, I'm gunna name him Greggo."

"That's a great name," Nick said, walking over and standing beside the bed, "This is Doctor Angrams. He's gunna look you over and make sure you are okay."

Maddy's look said it all, "I'm fine. He has to go take care of Greg."

"Greg has a whole bunch of doctors looking after him." Nick replied, "We just need to make sure, okay?"

Maddy looked back and forth between Nick and the doctor, "Okay."

In the end, Maddy was fine just shaken up from the ordeal. The chart that the paramedic had filled out mentioned the possibility of shock, but she wasn't in shock which Nick thought was a surprise. When the doctor gave her the all clear, they went back out to the waiting room. There was no way he was going to be able to get Maddy home until they heard about Greg.

TBC…


	10. Chapter Nine

A/N: So, here we have the final _real_ chapter to this story. Hopefully all of the loose ends are tied up. If not…well, damn. After this is just the epilogue folks. I want to take this time to apologize, since I haven't updated since August. Not my worst length of time, not by a long shot, but still…so, I am sorry.

Onwards to…chapter 9! Enjoy!

The waiting room was full up and Grissom was watching the doors with a pensive look on his face. No matter what anyone said, or what he said himself even, he thought very highly of Greg and next to Nick and Maddy, he was the most worried person in there.

Nick felt his pocket vibrate and pulled his phone out, sneaking a glance around to check for nurses. Satisfied he was in the clear, he answered, "Yeah?"

/Have you heard anything about Sanders yet?/

"No, not yet. What have you got?"

Grissom and the rest of the CSI's in the room all turned to look at him and Nick mouthed Brass at them.

/First thing is that Kastner is dead. Shot, by the looks of it. Probably by Sanders in self defense, given the wounds Sanders had. Second, I got a call about twenty minutes ago. Two bodies found, OD. We compared the samples from the cabin with what was found in the pockets of the bodies. De Luca's stamp was present and it looks like the concentration is the same./

Nicks heart skipped a beat. This was a good thing. Great even, the more he thought about it. With all of this happening, Nick had been starting to worry about what would happen to Greg now that De Luca knew about him staying with Nick. There would be no way the detective could have kept him safe and they would always be looking over their shoulders. Especially since Greg had had a hand in the killing of two of De Luca's agents.

"So, we can get him on murder along with the drug trafficking?"

/If everything goes through correctly, he can get put away for life./

Nick sighed. Thank god, "That's fantastic. Keep me updated?"

/Will do./

Nick shut his phone and looked around the congregation of CSI's, "There were two bodies found, OD on De Luca's drugs."

The tension in the room deflated like a balloon at the news and Nick came to the realization that he wasn't the only one who was worrying about what could have happened to Greg after he was released from the hospital. It was heartening, especially since he had been almost positive that most of Greg's fellow CSI's could barely tolerate him.

"There is one thing I still don't get," Sara said, looking around, "What was up with the house?"

Grissom looked at the doors then glanced at Nick, his eyes flickering down to Maddy, before he answered the woman curled up in the chair next to him, "It was a diversion. De Luca needed Jeremy back into the fold and what better way than to make it look like he had been kidnapped as well. It worked, even though we were all suspicious about it. Whoever it was dropped Jeremy into that room after the fire had been put out and the firemen gone. If you remember, there was an hour gap before we were allowed into the house."

"So they went in the back door, up the back stairs, dropped Jeremy off in the room, locked the door and then left, taking all the protective material with them? There had to have been an easier way, one that didn't look so suspicious," Catherine said, a frown on her face. Despite being in charge of second shift, she had always had a soft spot for the new CSI and had kept appraised of the case, even allowing Grissom to commandeer Warrick and Sara.

Grissom shrugged, "While I understand the how's, the why's still allude me. We may never find out now that Jeremy is dead." His head snapped to the doors as they slid open and a doctor wearing white, blood spattered scrubs walked out, "Sander's party?"

"I wouldn't call it a party but that's us," Catherine said, standing up, "How is he?"

"He'll be fine. He won't be walking for awhile, the bullet really shattered his knee cap and physical training will be long and hard. Couple of broken ribs, most of the rest bruised. The swelling in his face has gone down some but he'll still be black and blue for a week or so," The doctor paused, "I did find something strange. There was a pinprick in the carotid artery on his neck. Small, about the size of a little hypodermic needle. Rather new, there was some dried blood around it."

"Was he drugged?" Catherine asked.

The doctor shook his head, "He didn't have any symptoms of drugging, but until the tests come back we don't know for sure."

Grissom turned a thoughtful look to his team, "Greg and Jeremy had a case a few months back where the victim was killed by an air bubble to the heart. Greg has been terrified of needles since. It's probable that Jeremy tried that before resorting to the gun."

"In order for an air bubble to kill that way, the needle has to be large and the syringe needs to be completely full. The size of the needle used on Mr. Sanders was too small to have any effect even if the syringe was full." The doctor looked around, "He's in recovery now. You will be able to see him in an hour, only two at a time however. A nurse will let you know his room number when he is moved."

Grissom shook hands with the doctor, "Thank you."

Nick swallowed thickly as the doctor turned and went back through the triage doors. Greg was going to be all right.

* * *

Greg looked down at Maddy with amused eyes as she snuggled deeper into his side, before letting out a huff of air and falling deeper into sleep. Nick and Maddy had been the last into his room to visit, and really they were the only two were he was more than semi-coherent for as a fight with a nurse had broken out just before hand and woke him the rest of the way up. Apparently, kids weren't allowed in the rooms. Nick had managed to get around that by informing the nurse of what had happened. Sadly, it wasn't that that had won over the nurse, but Maddy's tears at not being allowed to see Greg.

"She refused to sleep until she saw you. I don't think I have ever seen her as quiet as she was when we were in that waiting room," Nick said from his spot on the edge of the bed. He had his fingers wrapped up with Greg's, a reassurance that the doctors hadn't been wrong, that Greg was alive.

Greg looked up at Nick, his eyes soft and clear despite the pain meds flowing through his body, "You should have seen her Nick. She was so brave…" He trailed off and looked back down at the dark head that was nestling under his arm, "She was so helpful, even though she knew she could have gotten caught. She even conned Kastner into taking her to the bathroom so he wouldn't get suspicious about her helping me."

"She is a great kid," Nick said, choking up slightly. Greg had filled in the blanks that Maddy hadn't known, and Nick was shocked about what had gone down in so little an amount of time…and the fact that Greg had been unconscious on the mountain for nearly an hour. How had his little girl not gone into shock? He knew he would have to find a therapist for her, once they got out of here. The nightmares alone from the ordeal would be enough to traumatize her.

"I'm sorry."

Nick's eyes show up to meet Greg's, "What? Why?"

"I got your daughter kidnapped Nick and you're asking why?" Greg sighed and leaned back on the pillows and looked away, "This whole mess was my fault. I broke Kastner's cover without realizing it, got Andrea killed, and then got kidnapped with Maddy in tow because Kastner wanted to use her as a scape goat."

"I'm not angry at you Greg. This wasn't you're fault, not the way you're thinking it is," Nick shook his head and squeezed Greg's fingers, "I am pissed as fuck at Kastner and De Luca and everyone else in their stupid little drug ring, but you? No, I am so not mad at you."

"How can you not be?"

Nick chuckled, "Well for one, you are beating yourself up more than enough for the both of us. While I really wish you would s_top_ already, I know you won't. Not yet, anyway. Two, you saved my daughter's life, Greg? How could I be angry at anyone who was willing to sacrifice their own life for my daughter?"

Greg's eyes were wet with tears as he looked back at Nick, "Jesus, you're just completely set on making me fall for you, aren't you?"

Nick's grin was brilliant, "Not my best work and I wish the circumstances were different, but…yeah, I am completely set on making you fall for me," he leaned in close, "Over and over again, if I have to."

Greg's smile was small, but just as brilliant as Nicks as he said, "Oh, that is so not a hardship."

* * *

Greg sat in his wheel chair, staring out over the hospital grounds as the door to his room clicked closed. He sighed and closed his eyes, wishing he could be out of this place already. Thankfully, the hospital therapist said he was pretty much ready, having spent a week working through what had happened on the mountain as well as his missing week. He wasn't healed mentally, not by any long shot, but he would continue his therapy lessons. Nick would happily kick his ass if he didn't. The plus side to seeing the therapist was that he pretty much had back all of his memories of that week…and he was sure he knew the reason he had blocked them in the first place.

Andrea had been one of his closest friends, outside of Jacqui, since coming to Las Vegas. Seeing her get killed followed by a week of torture, well, he hadn't been surprised when the therapist mentioned that that was probably what caused him to block the memories. That week had been hell. He had been held in a small room with no light, no food and a can to use when he had to shit or pee. There had been a small opening in the door that had had bars in it, and he had used that to talk to the kid locked up across the hall from him.

David.

That poor kid had only been sixteen and hadn't even used drugs which was the whole reason he had been taken. De Luca had wanted to test some of his new batches on someone who wasn't already a junkie. It was a horrible thought but one that was all too common. Then David had disappeared three days into Greg's stay and was never brought back. Greg knew that he had either been killed for refusing to take the drugs or he had OD'd, which was the more likely scenario. Now, Greg was wishing he had known a last name. Or maybe, he could have Nick check missing persons. He knew what had happened, and while telling David's parents that he was dead wasn't ideal, Greg knew it would give them closure.

The door to his room clicked again and Greg blinked and turned his head to see who was visiting. He smiled when Maddy burst into his room at full tilt and carefully climbed onto his lap, knowing to avoid the side with the broken ribs.

He hugged her, burying his face into her dark brown hair, "Hey chicka-roo. How was school?"

She giggled, just as she did every time he asked the rhyming question, especially since she was in daycare, "Good! We got to watch Peter Pan today."

"Wow, that was like my favorite movie growing up," Greg said, sitting up straight and looking at her, "Tinkerbell is just awesome," he was playing on her love of the fairies, especially since his favorite from the movie had been the lost boys, who were probably a little too violent for Maddy to like.

"Totally."

Nick, who had been watching the now familiar play-by-play with a fond smile, cleared his throat, "Just talked to your doctor G."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, you ready to go home?"

Greg's eyes widened and he looked around Nick at the door, where his favorite nurse Sharon was standing, waving a pile of papers and wearing a huge smile, "Seriously?"

"Seriously," Nick said, stepping to the side as Sharon stepped fully into the room, "I have clothes for you down in the truck. I'll run and get them," He pressed a kiss to Greg's forehead before turning and heading out.

"You just need to sign the papers, Greg and you'll be free to go," Sharon set them and a pen down on the rolling cart, moving it to his side.

He rolled his eyes and grabbed the pen, quickly jotting his name down where she indicated, "I could have rolled over there myself, you know."

"Please, you're leaving. This gave me one last chance to actually do something for you, small as it may be. You stubborn bastard."

Greg's eyes widened and he gasped jokingly, "What I wanted, you wouldn't offer."

Sharon laughed and punched his shoulder lightly before gathering up the papers, "What have I told you about flirting with me? It would never work between us…not to mention we each have very strong men who get jealous easily."

"Bah, they wouldn't have to know," Greg said, eyes twinkling. This is what he loved about Sharon, the fact that he could completely be himself and she didn't take him seriously. In fact, she enjoyed playing along.

She gave him a watered down version of Maddy's stink eye, "My house, tomorrow, six PM. You and Nick better bring Maddy along to keep Jack company or I'll smack you."

Nick walked in at that moment and took an involuntary step back at the look on Sharon's face, "What did he do now?"

"They were flirting again," Maddy said, before her eyes widened, "Oops! They didn't want anyone to know!" She whipped around to look at Greg, "I'm sorry!"

Nick took one look at Greg's and Sharon's horrified faces before busting out into laughter

TBC…

Whoo! Just the Epilogue left, folks. Again…I am so sorry. RL is hell, and if it weren't for Lily riding me about this I probably would have let it fall to the wayside. So, let me know what you all think…and until next time…ciao!


	11. Epilogue

Epilogue~

Greg leaned back in the deck chair he was reclining in, wincing slightly as the movement jarred his knee. He was only a week out of the hospital but he was still feeling the effects of the multitude of reconstructive surgeries that ha d been done to it. He took a sip of his rapidly warming lemonade and looked out towards the wooden swing set that sat on the far side of the yard.

He managed, barely, to bite back a laugh at what he saw. Somehow, Maddy and Lindsey had talked Nick into going down the slide. What hadn't been taken into account, however, was that Nick had rather broad shoulders that would in no way fit through a dome covering meant for little kids. Nick was now stuck and trying not to swear at Warrick who had the detective by the hands in order to pull him back out. It was a futile attempt as Warrick was laughing hard enough that he was considerably weakened.

"We may have to pull the saw out. I suppose it's a good thing Lindsey doesn't really use it anymore."

Greg looked over at Catherine, meeting eyes that were just as amused as his own, "We should make sure that we have a camera on hand should it come to that."

Catherine laughed lightly and took a seat next to him, "How are you doing Greg?"

Greg shrugged, "Okay."

Catherine gave him a shrewd look that felt like it was going straight through him, "Don't give me that. I may not be part of grave yard anymore but that doesn't mean I still don't care about you Greg. I can still read you. You would not believe how hard Ecklie rode me to make sure I didn't interfere with the case or your protection."

Greg looked back out over the yard, "Yeah, I would."

"Right, I forgot about that."

"It's not a big deal now, but I know what it's like to have Ecklie ride you. I don't blame you for not checking up on me, Cath. Although I did love the flowers you sent to the hospital as well as Nick's reaction to them. It was an amusing way to find out that he's allergic to lilies."

"Well, I'm glad for that, but that part about Ecklie wasn't point I was trying to make."

Greg shot her a look that he hoped showed just how bemused he was by this conversation, "Okay, then enlighten me. What was the point to all of that emotional gushing?"

Catherine punched him in the shoulder, "The point was that I know when you're lying about how you're feeling."

Greg sighed. At this point, he knew that she wasn't going to let it go, "I'm just…in pain, you know? I'm also frustrated and angry at this whole situation. Mark and his kids are still missing and I know that despite all the therapy, which I have been going to faithfully by the way, I'm still going to feel some of this until they are found or return."

She hummed slightly and rubbed his arm, which had him chuckling a little, "What, you're not going to tell me that none of this is my fault and that I shouldn't be feeling this way?"

"Hell no, I'm not your therapist. What I am going to tell you is that I'm glad you are getting help for this. It's a burden, knowing you played a role in a friend's death even if it was indirectly."

Greg gave a low hum of agreement before deciding a subject change was most definitely needed, "How's Jacqui?"

Greg hadn't seen the diminutive red head since he had first been kidnapped three weeks ago. At that time, she had been getting ready to go on maternity leave and after he was found he hadn't wanted to burden her with everything that was going on. Greg knew that, after Greg and Maddy were found at the cabin, Grissom had told the rest of the lab that he was alive and healing but Greg didn't know if Jacqui had been informed.

Catherine shrugged, "I'm not sure. I haven't had a chance to call her. Don't you think you should now that you are no longer under protective custody?"

"I…" Greg winced. He knew exactly how that conversation would play out, "Yeah, I will. Later. I don't need to be around people while she gives me a tongue lashing sharp enough to cut. "

"Are you sure? I imagine that would make a lovely picture," Catherine said with a chuckle before she straightened, her eyes bright, "Have Nick film it. He can show it to me at work Monday."

Greg blanched, "No! God, Catherine."

Catherine shrugged, "It was just an idea."

Greg stuck his tongue out at her and looked up just in time to see Nick slide free of the slide, only to fall to the grass with a solid thump that echoed through the yard. Greg laughed and, when his eyes met the Texans, he grinned so wide it nearly hurt. Nick's scowl morphed into a smile and he waved back at the ex-lab rat. Things weren't perfect yet, but with a little time, Greg knew that they would be okay.

THE END! FINALLY!

A/N: Okay, you all may not believe me, but I've had this done for forever. The problem was that _someone_ (*cough* Lils *cough*) didn't like the idea that I had Catherine as the recipient of Greg's epilogue closure piece. However, I love Catherine and the relationship she has with Greg on the show. It seemed right that they would up at her place at the end, even if she wasn't mentioned in the story proper. In truth, that's another reason I chose her. Who better to get Greg to open up (to close out the story) than someone who wasn't a part of the case? Not to mention, every time I tried to write this with someone else, I got major writers block. *sigh*


End file.
